WiMedia Alliance and Ecma International Formalize Joint Development Relationship

SAN RAMON, CA--(Marketwire - July 22, 2008) - The WiMedia™ Alliance today announced Ecma International and WiMedia have agreed upon a relationship wherein the development of specific standards will be conducted jointly between WiMedia engineers and Ecma member companies. When the work on a standard is completed, it will then be sent through WiMedia's approval process resulting in WiMedia members' intellectual property being bound to the work. Ecma will submit completed standards through their approval process which likewise binds Ecma members' intellectual property.

The structure of this relationship between an internationally recognized standards development organization and an industry special interest group is unique in that it allows standards development work to be done with significantly increased speed and efficiency. The WiMedia Alliance continues to focus on its core activities: preceding-standardization such as research, and post-standardization such as promotion and certification. Complementary to those activities, experts from WiMedia and Ecma will cooperatively develop standards under Ecma's due standardization process, efficiently and in a timely fashion.

According to Stephen Wood, President of the WiMedia Alliance, "We chose to work with Ecma to develop this new structure, because they had a firm understanding of the issues which cause standards to be delayed unnecessarily and had already addressed the overwhelming majority of these issues. Ecma's willingness to consider non-traditional strategies to standards development gave us the necessary flexibility to do something new."

"WiMedia adds significant value both prior to and following actual standardization, e.g., in research and certification respectively, thus complementing Ecma International's tried and true standardization process," noted Mr. Elzinga, deputy Secretary General of Ecma.

Ecma has established rules that favor consensus while balancing the interests of all stakeholders small and large. Additionally, the structure of this relationship provides access for WiMedia members to other standards which Ecma has expertise in developing without the need to replicate that body of work.

About the WiMedia Alliance

The WiMedia Alliance is a not-for-profit open industry association that promotes and enables the rapid adoption, regulation, standardization and multi-vendor interoperability of ultra-wideband (UWB) worldwide. The basis for the industry's first UWB standards (published by Ecma International), WiMedia UWB is optimized for wireless personal-area networks delivering high-speed (480Mbps and beyond), low-power multimedia capabilities for the PC, CE, mobile and automotive market segments. Emphasizing peaceful coexistence with other wireless services, the WiMedia UWB Common Radio Platform is designed to operate with application stacks developed by the Certified Wireless USB Promoter Group, the Bluetooth-SIG and proprietary implementations. WiMedia board members include Alereon, CSR, Intel, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung Electronics, Staccato Communications, Stonestreet One, and Wisair.

About Ecma International

Since its inception in 1961, Ecma International (Ecma) has developed standards for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Consumer Electronics (CE). Ecma is a non-profit industry association of technology developers, vendors and users. Experts from industry and other organizations work together at Ecma to develop standards. Ecma submits its work for approval as ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC JTC 1 and ETSI standards and is a frequent practitioner of "fast-tracking" of specifications through the standardization process in international standards organizations. Ecma publications can be downloaded free of charge from the Ecma International website www.ecma-international.org.

Contact Information: Contact: Susan Cain WiMedia Alliance PR (503) 538-2747