Alereon Unveils Developer's Tools Based On Certified Wireless USB

Taipei, Taiwan -- Alereon, Inc. introduced a Wireless USB Device tool suite designed to help speed the creation of applications and products using Alereon's Wireless USB chipset technology. The key component of the developer's kit is Alereon's Compact Flash evaluation board based on Certified Wireless USB. The card's small size and form factor make it suitable for use in the development of portable applications such as digital still cameras, MP3 players and PC peripheral products.

Demonstrations of the complete set of developer's tools occur today and Wednesday, July 26, at the USB Implementers Forum's (USB-IF) Certified Wireless USB Developers Conference (DEVCON) at the Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan. To view the demonstration, visit Alereon at Booth 9. The kit will be available to customers starting in August.

"We are committed to the convenience of wireless connectivity for portable electronics and the elimination of the need for standard USB cables by supporting the Certified Wireless USB standard in our chipset," said Eric Broockman, Alereon's CEO. "Alereon's tiny developer's tool kit has undergone connectivity testing with the USB-IF's peripheral developer's kit as well as other PC host chipsets. The small and convenient size of our developer's kit makes it easy for our customers to accelerate development of products targeted at portable applications."

The tool suite, based on Certified Wireless USB, includes the following components:

-- Compact Flash (CF) Wireless USB Evaluation Board. Based on Alereon's MAC/Baseband Processor (BBP) and RF Transceiver, the board provides a complete solution for Wireless USB based device applications. The board can plug into any standard CF card slot and includes support for connecting to an SDIO host interface.

-- Wireless USB Developer's Kit. Enables the evaluation and creation of Wireless USB applications. Components include the evaluation board described above, as well as driver and application software pre-loaded on a compact Linux-based PC. In conjunction with a compatible host adapter, such as the USB-IF's peripheral developer's kit (PDK), the system provides a working Wireless USB device implementation which can be used for evaluation and development, as well as a working baseline for custom applications or ports to other hardware and/or operating systems.

-- Wireless USB Reference Design Kit. Provides all the information needed to develop a custom Wireless USB device hardware implementation based on Alereon's MAC/BBP and RF Transceiver. Contents include complete design information for the Wireless USB CF card, including schematic capture and layout databases, a bill of materials, approved vendor's list and design guidelines.

Alereon's Wireless USB device chipset consists of the AL4300 MAC/BBP and the AL4100 RF Transceiver. Together, the two chips enable the implementation of a Wireless USB device controller in a highly integrated solution. The MAC/BBP is uniquely designed for wireless embedded applications and devices -- such as mobile phones -- which demand efficient space and power consumption. Compact Flash+ and SDIO host interfaces enable interconnectivity with almost any host processor. The MAC/BBP is designed to operate over the air at maximum speed while consuming minimal amounts of host processor memory or resources, allowing easy integration into embedded systems.

SOURCE: Alereon, Inc.