Alereon Goes Ultrawide

AUSTIN, Texas -- Alereon, a new Ultra wideband (UWB) semiconductor company, formally announced its launch today with an executive team comprised of experienced UWB and semiconductor industry leaders. Backed by Austin Ventures, Pharos Capital and other investors, Alereon is designing UWB chipsets for commercial communications applications in personal area networks (PAN).

Eric Broockman, formerly with Austin-based semiconductor company Legerity, joins the company as chief executive officer. Jim Baker and Jeff Ross, both former executives at UWB developer Time Domain Corporation, will serve as chief operating officer and executive vice president, respectively. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Alereon currently has 27 employees with plans for additional expansion. The majority of Alereon's employees are experienced UWB engineers from Time Domain.

"The opportunities in this market are tremendous with industry and analysts forecasting sales of 100 million units in 2006," said Broockman. "Our UWB chipsets will provide high-bandwidth connectivity among consumer electronics and personal computing devices, making the cables connecting these devices today obsolete. Alereon's product will connect consumers' televisions, PCs, camcorders, digital cameras, printers, DVD and MP3 players to one another at hundreds of megabits per second at low power and very cost effectively."

"This is a highly unusual situation for a start-up company," said Basil Horangic, a partner at Austin Ventures. "Alereon launches with a very strong position in the UWB market unlike any other early-stage company. With a leading UWB management team, a group of the most experienced UWB engineers in the world, the leading intellectual property position, and solid investment partners, we have all the ingredients necessary to lead the industry, starting today with the founding of the company."

Alereon's first product, in development for commercial availability in late 2004, will be compatible with the emerging IEEE 802.15.3a standard for PAN communications. Large consumer electronics and personal computing companies such as Intel, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Motorola, ST Microelectronics, Phillips, HP and Sharp are participating in the formation of the standard and several are working with the newly formed company as it develops its first chipset product.

"There is little doubt that UWB will provide the next big leap forward in wireless capabilities for consumer electronics and personal computing in the next few years," said Ted S. Rappaport, The William and Betty Nowlin chair in Engineering and director of the Wireless Networking and Communications Group at the University of Texas. "Alereon's decision to locate in Austin, Texas, cements Austin's place as a center of excellence for the development of wireless technologies."

Broockman, who will lead Alereon, comes from Legerity, where he served as vice president and general manager of Voice Over Broadband products. He has also served two successive chief executive roles at Acorn Networks and Alchemy Semiconductor. Earlier, Broockman was vice president and general manager at Cirrus Logic. His career began at IBM, where he spent 17 years in a variety of management and engineering positions.

"Eric has the rare combination of strong technical abilities and superb leadership and management skills," said Horangic. "He has a wealth of experience leading semiconductor companies and bringing product to market."

Baker and Ross join Alereon from UWB developer Time Domain Corporation. Baker most recently served as chief operating officer at Time Domain, where he led the company's commercial communications division. Prior to that he served as vice president of engineering and chief technology officer at Network Peripherals Inc. and NetWave Technologies, and held positions as president, vice president of sales and marketing, and vice president of engineering at Loral Data Systems, Western Development Labs and COMSAT. He has over 30 years of experience in communications systems design, program and product line management, and general management. Ross served as senior vice president for corporate development at Time Domain, where he was in charge of managing the company's worldwide relationships. He also led the company's business development, corporate development, corporate communications and legal activities. Prior to joining Time Domain, Ross worked at Patton Boggs LLP in Washington, D.C., in the firm's Telecommunications and Technology practice group.

Alereon Inc.