Merger as Ultrawideband turmoil continues

Two companies specialising in ultrawideband (UWB) communication have merged, a move signalling continuing confusion over the future of the technology.

Staccato Communications announced today that it has completed a merger with Artimi Inc, which has a corporate headquarters in California but was founded six years ago in Cambridge, UK.

The merged company has received $20m of new funding and will trade under the name Staccato. The company said in a statement that this was to maintain agreements and voting rights stemming from Staccato's involvement with the Wimedia Alliance, which controls the technology.

UWB has received a number of setbacks recently. Intel and UWB pioneer Wiquest both shut off their involvement with the technology. It was to have been used as a fast data-pipe for next-generation Bluetooth, but the governing Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is looking at using Wifi as an alternative.

The technology has hit regulatory problems and has yet to reach promised data rates of up 480Mbits/sec and beyond. This is partly because initial products, notably for Wireless USB, have been in the form of UWB adapters replacing wires.

This has meant the data stream having to carry the load of both the wireless and wired protocols.

A Staccato statement said the departure of Intel and Wiquest left more business for those remaining in the market.

The new merged company would "leverage" 65nm Staccato's Ripcord2, described as the only single-chip solution certified in Band Groups 1, 3 and 6 for worldwide operation, and Artimi’s Zero Install technology and Wireless USB solutions.

Staccato says Artimi's R&D centre in Cambridge will continue as before.