Staccato and Fujitsu Jointly Develop Industry's First Wireless USB-Enabled Digital Still Camera Development Platform

Staccato Communications, Inc. and Fujitsu Limited today announced their joint development of a wireless universal serial bus (USB) demonstration system comprised of Staccato's new Ripcord™ UWB Development Kit (SC3100D) and the Fujitsu digital still camera (DSC) development platform. This system will be the first demonstration to show wireless USB connectivity to DSCs, one of the most popular applications of wireless USB.

Staccato and Fujitsu will jointly demonstrate this system in the Wireless USB Community at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) spring events to be held in Tokyo (April 7-8), Taipei (April 11-12) and Beijing (April 14-15). These developments are the first major marketing activities between Staccato and Fujitsu to promote the wireless USB and ultrawideband (UWB) markets.

Staccato's Ripcord UWB Development Kit (DVK), a hardware, software and consumer product development platform, was concurrently announced today with immediate availability. The Ripcord DVK incorporates the world's first single-chip all-CMOS MBOA-compliant PHY module based upon the Fujitsu 0.11 micron semiconductor process. The DVK also includes Staccato's revolutionary MBOA MAC that provides rapid device discovery, fast stream establishment, high quality of service (QoS) and efficient use of spare capacity by aperiodic traffic in a secure decentralized architecture. The demonstration takes advantage of the DVK's industry-standard system interfaces that enable wireless USB connectivity to DSCs and other devices.

The IDF showing will be the first public demonstration of the Ripcord DVK with the Fujitsu DSC development platform, which is based on the M-3 Series MB91382 from Fujitsu. The M-Series is an image signal processing solution for digital cameras that has been adopted in a wide range of DSC and camera-equipped mobile phones.

"The M-Series is the most successful application specific chip for DSCs and mobile phones, fully adopting state-of-the-art image data processing architecture from Fujitsu, advanced leading-edge CMOS process, and low-power consumption technology. The M-Series has captured more than a 30 percent share of the image signal processing ASSP market," said Satoru Yamaguchi, Deputy General Manager of the System Micro Division of Fujitsu Limited. "Staccato's CMOS single-chip PHY products, based upon our 0.11 micron technology, complement our advanced digital still camera solutions and deliver on high performance, low power and low cost," he stated.

"Wireless USB is the first major application for ultrawideband, and this demonstration shows how close we are to delivering products," said Rick Kornfeld, President and CEO, Staccato Communications. "Staccato's ability to provide low-cost and high-volume commercially viable UWB-enabled products with minimal design-in effort leads the marketplace."