AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alereon, Inc., the Certified Wireless USB technology leader for Worldwide Ultra Wideband (UWB) WiMedia solutions, today announced the first demonstration of an Apple iPhone/iPod peripheral reference design based on the new worldwide, low power 90nm-LP AL5301 chip built at Samsung’s 12inch wafer fabrication facility in Korea.

The demonstration consists of a small wireless USB peripheral connected to a typical iPhone or iPod’s edge connector. The adapter enables any iPhone or iPod to both provide extra battery power/charging as well as synchronize wirelessly to iTunes whether on a Windows or MAC OS machine. Future enhancements will enable connectivity to HDTVs for displaying photos or videos.

“The success of the Apple iPhone and iPod motivated us to apply the simplicity of our low power Wireless USB solution to the needs for high throughput wireless connectivity for synchronization,” said Eric Broockman, CEO at Alereon. “Our new AL5301, because of its low power consumption, allowed us to produce a small form factor ideal for use with Apple’s elegant iPhone family.”

In addition to reducing the size and power consumption of wireless USB hardware, Alereon is also now delivering a next generation of software that provides increased throughput together with a simpler user installation experience. This includes a new Driverless USB dongle which simplifies the installation process by not requiring any drivers to be installed on the PC. Simply plug in the dongle and it is ready to connect straight out of the box.  Alereon has also increased wireless USB performance, providing over 130Mbps of delivered throughput for native mass storage applications, over 175Mbps for video applications over Wireless USB and over 200Mbps of throughput for future DLNA based applications.

The AL5301 is pin for pin compatible with the prior AL5300 which enables OEMs to easily transition existing products to this device to capitalize on the AL5301’s lower power consumption and enhanced feature set.

Alereon's AL5000 solution family includes a full set of host and device solutions including a half MiniCard, device MiniCard, ExpressCard, USB Adapter, hub and graphics adapter. Each of these solutions has achieved FCC regulatory certification and meets stringent UWB regulatory requirements with one SKU for sale in the EU, Japan, China and Korea.

Alereon, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company using revolutionary Ultra Wideband (UWB) radio technology to develop high-bandwidth, low-power, low-cost Wireless USB and WiMedia UWB chipsets that are ideal for today’s personal computer and portable products, like digital cameras, mp3 players and cell phones. Our mission is to replace the complex tangle of wires that interconnect today's electronic devices with wireless links. For more information, visit http://www.alereon.com.