Staccato Communications Achieves Industry-First Milestones with Reference Designs, Based on Certified Wireless USB, for Mobile Handsets, PDAs and PC Notebooks.

Staccato Provides the Industry's First Single-Chip, All-CMOS Half Mini Card, Based on Certified Wireless USB, and Offers the Market's Only Secure Digital I/O Card Reference Design Based on Its Ripcord[TM] Family of Single-Chip, All-CMOS Solutions

SAN DIEGO -- Staccato Communications, an Ultra Wideband (UWB) wireless technology pioneer and Certified Wireless USB leader, today announced the delivery of the industry's first-available Half Mini Card and Secure Digital I/O (SDIO) reference designs, based on Certified Wireless USB. The complete, production-ready reference designs feature firmware and drivers, and target mobile handset, PDA and PC notebook applications. These reference design kits accelerate development and time-to-market for products aimed at the Half Mini Card notebook PC space and embedded products with an SDIO interface.

Staccato boasts a broad portfolio of existing reference designs, each of which supports faster design and development cycles and reduced design costs. The latest additions, which are based on Certified Wireless USB, include the following:

* SC3225R Wireless USB HWA Half Mini Card -- The SC3225R is half the size of a standard PCI Express Mini Card, allowing notebook PC vendors maximum flexibility in form factor design and system integration of multiple wireless technologies. By taking up half of the space of a full Mini Card, Staccato's Half Mini Card design leaves room for another Half Mini Card, such as Bluetooth. This enables notebook designs to have one Mini Card slot dedicated to WPAN and to support both Wireless USB and Bluetooth simultaneously.

* SC3226R Wireless USB SDIO Card -- The SC3226R is a reference design, based on Certified Wireless USB, in an SDIO Card form factor. Supporting native host, native device or dual-role-device modes through an SDIO 1.1 device interface, the SC3226R provides a highly integrated solution for embedded applications. This approach is effective for laptops, PDAs, mobile handsets, and other devices that support SDIO cards.

"Staccato has remained incredibly competitive by offering lower costs and a smaller bill of materials, due to the implementation of its Ripcord, single-chip, all-CMOS solutions in these reference designs," said Fiona Thomson, Market Analyst, IMS Research. "Staccato has also developed the necessary firmware and drivers to support these reference designs, reinforcing their expertise in the Certified Wireless USB space and commitment to bringing products to market."

"We are always looking to meet design and footprint challenges in order to develop high-quality, reliable products. Staccato's delivery of these reference designs is helping customers like us meet these demands," said Ray Lin, senior product marketing manager, Cameo Communications, Inc. "Designs based on a portfolio of complete, small form-factor solutions like Staccato's, coupled with a small bill of materials, supports our efforts in delivering the Certified Wireless USB products that retail customers are demanding."

"Staccato continues to lead the market with inexpensive, real-world reference designs and single-chip CMOS solutions," said Martyn Humphries, VP Worldwide Sales for Staccato Communications. "We will continue to add value by introducing more reference designs to accelerate time-to-market and design low-cost solutions with low-cost bill of materials."

The reference design kits include a working hardware sample, schematics, PCB Gerber layout files, bill-of-materials, design guide, production test guide, HWA and DWA Windows XP drivers and utilities, and a sample end user manual. The reference designs are supplemented by Staccato's UWB University and Team Staccato Partner Program. UWB University offers an educational review of the most relevant industry topics for engineers and business executives in the Certified Wireless USB, Bluetooth 3.0 and IP-over-UWB arenas. The Team Staccato Partner Program provides customers with total solutions through alliances with industry leaders throughout the value chain, including suppliers of UWB components, software, test equipment and services, and design services.

For a photo of the Half Mini Card reference design, visit http://staccatocommunications.com/press/photos/HalfMini. For a photo of the SDIO reference design, visit http://staccatocommunications.com/press/photos/SDIO.

About Staccato Communications' Products

Based on the WiMedia Alliance's UWB common radio platform and the Certified Wireless USB specification from the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), Ripcord is a single-chip, all-CMOS solution implemented in a complete, fully integrated System-In-Package (SiP) using leading 110nm digital CMOS process technology. Ripcord's high-level of integration minimizes design risk, lowers system cost and accelerates customers' time-to-market by consolidating all hardware and software components necessary to implement a solution based on 480 Mbps Certified Wireless USB.

About Staccato Communications

Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Staccato Communications is an Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology pioneer with applications expertise in Certified Wireless USB, Bluetooth and Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity. The fabless semiconductor company serves the personal computing, consumer electronics and mobile phone industries with small form factor, single-chip, all-CMOS wireless solutions. Staccato's WiMedia-based offerings include PHY, MAC, drivers, application software, development kits and reference designs. The Team Staccato Partner Program enables total solutions through alliances with industry leaders throughout the value chain. For more information, please visit www.staccatocommunications.com.

Ripcord is a trademark of Staccato Communications. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.