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DailyTech – WiQuest Goes Down in Flames

Wireless USB company WiQuest closes its doors

Another problem plaguing UWB chips is the current high cost. EETimes reports that OEMs want UWB chips to be in the under $5 range. That price range is in line with current Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips. Current UWB chips can’t meet than price demand, but UWB chips coming to market in 2009 may be able to hit the price OEMs want.

Current UWB chips also draw more power than most OEMs want for devices. Current chips draw about 1 Watt of power and for handheld devices they need to draw under 300 milliWatts. Performance of first generation wireless USB chips was also subpar with speeds of under 50 Mbits/s.

The low performance was blamed on non-native WUB implementations and the high overhead of the USB protocol. Regulations also prevent the use of USB in many geographies and some areas use different frequency bands for UWB than others. This makes it difficult for OEMs to add WUSB to devices because they can’t guarantee the devices will function in all locations.