EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands -- Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) and General Atomics (GA) today announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly develop Ultra-Wideband (UWB) wireless communication chipsets and support the standardization process. The result of the collaboration will provide a significant time-to-market advantage for the introduction of UWB chipsets. Initial chipsets are expected to be available in conjunction with emerging standards such as IEEE 802.15.3a. UWB, a high-speed, short-range wireless technology, is ideal for effortlessly transferring digital content between devices in different entertainment and computing clusters in the home, such as digital video recorders, set-top boxes, televisions and personal computing (PC) peripherals.Philips and GA intend to leverage one another's expertise to offer high-performance and cost-effective UWB solutions for consumer and computing applications. GA will benefit from Philips' leadership in Radio Frequency (RF) and its proven QUBiC semiconductor process technology. Philips will license GA's wireless communication technology, including its Spectral KeyingÔ, an advanced multi-band UWB technology. Together, the focus is to develop wireless communication chipsets for very high bit rate networks, up to 480 Megabits per second (Mbps)."GA is pleased to collaborate with Philips and be able to leverage its world-class, highly advanced silicon BiCMOS process technology," said Dr. Michael D. Perry, director, General Atomics. "Combined with GA's UWB technology and Philips' RF leadership and heritage as a consumer company, we intend to develop robust semiconductor solutions targeting this emerging short range wireless technology space."Royal Philips Electronics NVGeneral Atomics