Freescale Lauds FCC's Ultra-Wideband Waiver Decision; 4x Advantage Fo

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2005--Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.B) commends the Federal Communication Commission for its historic decision today to expand the rules of Ultra-Wideband.
    The approval of the waiver of the Part 15 rules, ET Docket No. 04-352, explicitly removes the requirement to reduce power for gated systems that burst intermittently (for today's FCC release visit http://www.fcc.gov). While the waiver request was originally made to modify the measurement procedure for multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) technology, today the Commission delivered a technology-neutral waiver. Under these rules, design choices of direct sequence UWB (DS-UWB) technology result in a 4x advantage for DS-UWB over MB-OFDM technology.
    "We commend the Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on a fair policy with technology-neutral rules that protect incumbent spectrum stakeholders and benefit all consumers," said Martin Rofheart, director of the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Operation at Freescale. "The advantages of DS-UWB over MB-OFDM are significant and today's waiver will positively impact our current XS110 and future DS-UWB products. Indeed, our aggressive UWB product roadmap will be further expanded in terms of data rate and range as we move to multi-gigabit products over the coming quarters."
    Relative to the original rules, under this waiver, DS-UWB can now enjoy 4x greater data rate across a network, or deliver a stream using 4x lower power from the battery, or deliver the same data rate across the network but at double the distance and with greater robustness. The capability to burst at 4x data rate over the same range, and "sleep" more, generates significant additional battery savings for the already very low power DS-UWB solution, an ideal benefit for future DS-UWB applications such as cell phones, digital camcorders and portable hard drives. As important, with a simple firmware update, Freescale's current UWB chipset, the XS110, can now be re-certified to take advantage of the benefits of the new waiver and deliver multiple HD video streams at double the distance -- up to 20 meters.
    Currently, Freescale is the only manufacturer delivering a commercial UWB solution for wireless connectivity applications. The XS110, as certified under the FCC's original UWB rules published February 2002, achieves data rates of 110 megabits per second and delivers multiple high definition (HD) streams at 10 meters. Today's ruling does not affect the completed certification for the XS110, which is currently shipping to customers worldwide for use in large screen displays, set-top boxes and digital video recorders which are anticipated to be available to consumers this year.
    Freescale confirmed that it would immediately submit the XS110 for re-certification under the waiver.

    About Freescale Semiconductor

    Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.B) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. Freescale became a publicly traded company in July 2004 after more than 50 years as part of Motorola, Inc. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale, a member of the S&P 500(R), is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2004 sales of $5.7 billion (US). www.freescale.com

    Freescale Technology Forum

    Learn more about this inaugural forum, June 20-23, Orlando, Florida, featuring visionary keynote speeches, in-depth technical presentations and technology demonstrations from Freescale and leading hardware, software and tools providers. www.freescale.com/ftf

    Freescale(TM) and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. (c) Freescale Semiconductor Inc. 2004

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CONTACT: Freescale Semiconductor, Austin Media Contacts: North America: Robin Vaitonis, 480-413-3840 robin.vaitonis@freescale.com or Latin America: Ruth Ruiz, 480-814-4897 ruth.ruiz@freescale.com or Europe, Middle East, Africa: Regina Cirmonova, +41-22-799-1258 regina.cirmonova@freescale.com or Japan: Koichi Yoshimura, +81-3-3280-8672 koichi.yoshimura@freescale.com or Asia Pacific: Gloria Shiu, +852 2661 8237 gloria.shiu@freescale.com

KEYWORD: TEXAS FLORIDA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE ADVERTISING/MARKETING AUTOMOTIVE SOFTWARE NETWORKING PRODUCT SOURCE: Freescale Semiconductor

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