WiQuest Announces Gigabit Ultrawideband Chipset

Allen, TX -- WiQuest Communications announced the availability of its WQST110 and WQST101 chipset, which the company claims is the industry's first commercially-available, high-performance silicon delivering wireless communication speeds up to one gigabit-per-second. Based on the WiMedia UWB physical layer (PHY) and media access controller (MAC) specifications, the WQST110 builds upon and extends the performance capabilities of UWB communications systems. The companion WQST101 radio frequency transceiver chip combines with the WQST110 to provide a UWB solution for manufacturers of PC and peripheral systems, consumer electronics, home entertainment, portable gaming, multimedia platforms, mobile devices and more. In addition to the new chipset, WiQuest is also announcing the immediate availability of the WQST100EVK, a complete UWB system evaluation kit which contains silicon and software for customer assessment, testing and product development.

"WiQuest's gigabit-per-second UWB technology will service a burgeoning UWB market opportunity, as well as a number of exciting new wireless applications that clearly benefit from this enhanced performance boost," commented Brian O'Rourke, senior analyst, Converging Markets & Technologies Group, In-Stat.

The WQST110 is a wireless CMOS integrated circuit combining baseband PHY, MAC engine, high-speed security processor, quality of service (QoS) manager and a rich variety of host interfaces, all in one highly-integrated design. Designed to optimize the UWB system bill of materials, the WQST110 contains a high-speed USB subsystem including controller and transceiver. This IC also implements a tightly-coupled interface with the WQST101 RF transceiver to ensure wireless chipset performance.

"We are extremely pleased with the strong customer and industry response to our first UWB product design," commented Dr. Matthew Shoemake, WiQuest founder, CEO and president. "Due to its advanced architecture, capabilities and features, we are experiencing significant demand for our WQST110/101 chipset in a wide variety of applications."

The chip's versatile USB subsystem supports both host-side and device-side connectivity through firmware-controlled configuration management, allowing this chipset to enable a range of devices and applications. Coupled with WiQuest software drivers, the WQST110 is suitable for all Certified Wireless USB applications.

"As a contributor to the Certified Wireless USB specification and as a member of the USB Implementers Forum, WiQuest has helped both WiMedia UWB and Certified Wireless USB become industry standards," said Jeff Ravencraft, chairman and president of the USB-IF and technology strategist for Intel. "With products from member companies like WiQuest, manufacturers will be able to quickly build and deploy a wide variety of new products based on the Certified Wireless USB technology."

The WQST110 contains the WiQuest WiMAC core. Customers using the WQST110 can deploy features and capabilities as well as future-proof their designs without having to re-engineer their system hardware. Additionally, the WiMAC core combines with WiQuest's advanced PHY design to provide the flexibility to adapt UWB-based products to important regulatory requirements such as spectrum management and protection mechanisms for incumbent equipment and services.

"WiQuest has been a strong supporter in the development and deployment of the WiMedia specifications comprising the UWB common radio platform," said Stephen R. Wood, president, WiMedia Alliance. "Their release of this complete WiMedia-based chipset expands the UWB ecosystem and provides the industry with new wireless product opportunities, helping to drive a faster market ramp and adoption cycle."

To assist customers with design support and system integration, WiQuest offers reference designs for Certified Wireless USB applications, including daughtercard modules, external plug-in 'dongles' and USB embedded device/hub implementations. These reference designs include schematics, layout details, bill of materials and design documentation. Software support packages including firmware and device drivers are available in conjunction with these hardware reference designs, which support host wired adapter (HWA), device wired adapter (DWA), dual role device (DRD), as well as Certified Wireless USB device implementations.

SOURCE: WiQuest Communications, Inc.