SAN JOSE, Calif. — Startup Motia came out of stealth mode to announce its first product Tuesday (Dec. 2), an analog signal processing chip that brings smart antenna technology to 2.4-GHz wireless LAN cards and access points. The Stamford, Conn.-based company claims its Javelin chip can improve the gain of existing 802.11b and .11g signals by 6 to 18 dB.
"Other companies are building entire systems with the smart antenna built in. We are the only ones I am aware of working to bring smart antenna technology to the component level for WiFi systems builders," said Jack Winters, chief scientist for Motia and a former manager in the wireless division of AT&T Labs.
At the heart of Motia's new product lies a 68-pin analog signal processing chip that uses polarization techniques to derive up to four signals from the two existing antennas typically found in an 802.11 PC card or access point. OEMs may wish to modify their existing internal antennas to maximize benefits of the Motia approach, Winters said.
The Motia chip takes the four incoming RF signals and calculates on a packet-by-packet basis their average weighting to optimize signal strength, making calculations of analog signal data in as little as two microseconds to reduce latency. The chip passes on a combined and optimized signal to any existing WiFi transceiver via a standard antenna port.
Motia claims the chip delivers a 6 dB gain improvement in line-of-sight applications, 13 dB in multipath environment and up to 18 dB when used at both client and access points to handle both signal transmission and reception.
The increased gain can extend the normal range by two to four times, as well as exhibit higher data rates and a lower power consumption, the company claims. In a press statement, Bruce McNair, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, said he used the Javelin chip to help make an 802.11 connection across a range of 370 feet with 1 milliwatt of transmit power.
Systems startups in smart antennas such as Vivato and Bandspeed are using sectorized antenna technologies best suited for line-of-sight applications and are not as powerful in multipath networks, said Robert Warner, vice president of sales and marketing for Motia. Another potential competitor, Airgo uses MIMO technology that has yet to be standardized. Airgo makes the entire suite of silicon to handle the baseband, media access control and smart antenna functions, he added.
Motia will quickly follow up with a multimode, multiband version of its first chip to handle 2.4 and 5 GHz .11a/b/g WiFi networks. It is also planning to use its frequency-agnostic technology in several other wireless applications."Our next product announcement early next year is in a frequency band you probably would not expect," said Warner.
"One major thing that separates Motia from the other smart antenna vendors is their compliance to the 802.11 standards. The other guys, when operating in a mode for optimum performance, move away from the standard and into technology that is more proprietary, while Motia does not," said Aaron Vance, an analyst for market watcher Synergy Research Group.
"Furthermore, Motia has identified other applications for their technology such as mobile satellite cable other than just Wi-Fi. Therefore, in terms of their two initial target markets there seems to be a significant amount of opportunity for them to either carve out their own niche or perhaps become a target for acquisition from a larger company," Vance added.
So far Motia has no announced users, though the company has disclosed its technology to several WiFi card and access point makers. The chip will sample in Q1 2004 at probably less than $10 per chip in volume, though the company has not set final pricing.
Motia has raised $7.5 million in venture capital to date and plans another financing round next year. Chief executive Paul Sun was a director at PairGain and a founder of Transwitch Corp. Motia board members include Santanu Das, the current president of Transwitch, and Mike O'Neill, the chairman of WiFi startup IceFyre Semiconductor.
