Monday, April 5, 2004

Staccato Raises $20 Million for UWB Silicon

Staccato Communications, a start-up based in San Diego, announced $20 million in Series B funding for its ultrawideband (UWB) wireless technology. Staccato is developing CMOS silicon devices for UWB.



In recent weeks, Staccato Communications has revealed several important partnerships including an agreement with NEC Electronics to jointly develop high rate (480Mbps) wireless USB products, and with Wisme, a provider of UWB MAC (medium access control) technology. Other recent announcements include Staccato's release of the first MultiBand OFDM Alliance-based UWB development platform (SC1030D), election to the 1394 Trade Association Board of Directors, election to the Wireless USB Promoters Group as a "key contributor", contributor in the WiMedia Alliance, and membership in the Consumer Electronics Association.



The new funding comes from existing investors Allegis Capital, Bay Partners, and Charles River Ventures, along with new investor InterWest Partners. http://www.staccatocommunications.com

  • In August 2003, Samsung Electronics and Staccato Communications agreed to jointly develop Ultra-wideband-based (UWB) technology for the Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) market and to collaborate on application development. The companies envision UWB-based products for very high bit-rate networks, up to 480 Mbps, based on Multiband OFDM technology. Staccato will benefit from Samsung's leadership in developing memory chipsets, CDMA mobile phones, consumer electronics and Radio Frequency (RF) technologies. Samsung will benefit from Staccato's UWB expertise. Availability of initial chipsets will be in conjunction with emerging IEEE 802.15.3a standard.