INTEL, FUJITSU WiMAX CHIPS ON SCHEDULE

Fujitsu and Intel both will have their WiMAX chipsets shipping in volume in time for the launch of vendors' commercial equipment in the third quarter, both semiconductor companies have confirmed.

With WiMAX certification just around the corner and vendors promising to ship their products in the latter half of the year, one of the last remaining question marks surrounding WiMAX is when the system-on-chip silicon promised by the major chipset vendors would be available. The chipsets are just needed to complete most vendors' final base station and customer premises equipment (CPE), but they're also necessary for the interoperability trials scheduled for this summer.

Fujitsu said it would release its base station and CPE chips next month and would begin shipping them in volume 12 to 14 weeks later. Samples of its chip went to select customers in January, so many of Fujitsu's customers already have built their products around the design, said George Wu, director of marketing of technology solutions for Fujitsu Microelectronics.

“Some of our partners have developed their own RF technology,” Wu said. “The only thing they need from us is the chip to plug into their final product.”

While Intel has not set an exact date for the commercial launch of its chipset “Rosedale,” some of Intel's vendor partners already have announced they will launch their WiMAX product lines — Intel gear included — in the third quarter. Airspan unveiled its complete portfolio plans for WiMAX earlier this month, including a mass-market CPE unit that will incorporate Rosedale.

“We haven't done a final launch yet,” an Intel spokeswoman. “It's no secret, though, that our customers have samples of the chip around which they're designing equipment. We will supply the final chips when our partners launch their equipment commercially.”

Wu said that the vendor is very conscious of the need to get WiMAX gear out on schedule, especially after confusion over the certification process arose this year when the WiMAX Forum canceled its interoperability “plugfest” scheduled for January.

“2005 is the year of WiMAX trial deployments,” Wu said. “We want to be right there when it's supposed to happen. Otherwise, the naysayers will have their way.”