WiMedia Alliance and Ecma International Formalize Joint Development Relationship

SAN RAMON, CA, Jul 22 (MARKET WIRE) --
The WiMedia(TM) 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:
Susan Cain
WiMedia Alliance PR
(503) 538-2747
Email Contact

Copyright 2008, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

-0-