Motorola and Freescale Pull Out of the UWB Forum

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=184429508' target='_blank'>http://www.eet.com/news/latest/show...cleID=184429508</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Freescale Semiconductor is pulling out of the UWB Forum which it co-founded with Motorola and Pulse-Link. A spokesperson at Freescale also confirmed for EE Times that Motorola is also pulling out. The forum was founded in 2004 in an effort to rally support around Freescale's direct-sequence flavor of wireless ultrawideband signaling—and to compete with what has now become the WiMedia Alliance... led by heavyweights such as Intel and Philips... 'The forum was de-focused with concerns such as regulations, certification, interoperability and common signaling [schemes],' said Rofheart. 'We don't think anything else matters for UWB more than our approach with [Cable Free] USB 2.0. We're showing our hand: the battle for UWB is on. We're pulling out of every effort not related to it.'"</i><br /><br />For those of you who have lost count because you only count with your thumbs, that's now three potential "standards" for wireless USB technology. So anyone waiting or hoping for this technology to hit the market can expect more of the same type bewilderment and confusion that we've come to expect from any new technology, though this does seems to be taking on a distinct soap-opera type of feel! Can't we all just get along! :cry:

[PDANEWBIE]

This has gone on for as long as I can remember -

VHS vrs Betamax, Disel vrs Leaded vrs Unleaded, HD DVD vs Blu-Ray

Yadda yadda yadda... I don't think were ever goign to have set standards for anything as long as someone thinks they can "do it better".

Personally I just feel sorry for the consumers that try to make everything they buy work together... and ultimately get stuck on the phone for hours with some guy, who going by the alias of Steve but is really in a foreign country that has such a thick accent you can't understand one smidge of what he is saying, that the company you bought the product from calls "technical support".

[Duncan]

Well that makes Freescale Semiconductor a bunch of idiots then. UWB will win for one simple reason - it's adoption into the Bluetooth standard. That will give UWB a foor in the door that no-one else will have.