Wi-LAN Cuts W-OFDM Engine Costs by More Than 70 Percent With First ASIC Chip of its Kind

Business Wire, August 2, 2000

Business Editors

CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2000

Wi-LAN (TSE:WIN.)

[pilcrow (paragraph sign)] W-OFDM ASIC Chip to be Integrated Into Wi-LAN'S I.WiLL(TM) System

for the Fall Product Line

Wi-LAN Inc. (TSE:WIN.), an innovator of high-speed wireless data/Internet communications, technology and products, announced today Philips Semiconductors delivered the world's first Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip that uses Wi-LAN's patented Wideband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (W-OFDM) technology.

With a high-speed rate of 45 megabits per second, this is the first wireless two-way OFDM chip providing high-speed communications greater than two megabits per second. The W-OFDM ASIC chip compresses the components of the engine that powers Wi-LAN's new W-OFDM-based I.WiLL product line of broadband wireless access products into a single chip. This technology allows Wi-LAN to reduce its W-OFDM engine costs by more than 70 percent.

"This is a great day for Wi-LAN as this project has been eight years in the making," said Ramesh Uppal Wi-LAN vice president, technology. "This chip is a key element in establishing Wi-LAN's cost advantage in the lucrative broadband wireless access product market. The chip also helps to promote the wide spread adoption of W-OFDM technology as the solution for high speed wireless data transmission making it very attractive for other technology companies to source their OFDM engine from us."

Wi-LAN will integrate the chip into its I.WiLL product line units to be delivered this fall. Wi-LAN's I.WiLL System is designed for service providers looking to deploy cost-effective broadband wireless access networks in all licensed and unlicensed bands between 2-6 GHz.

The ASIC chip was jointly developed by Wi-LAN and Philips Semiconductors as part of a licensing agreement between the two companies. This arrangement marked the first license agreement of W-OFDM technology for the IEEE 802.11a standard, and was the first step towards the manufacturing of lower-cost W-OFDM products.

Future Plans

Earlier this year, Wi-LAN announced the launch of the world's first W-OFDM customer premises equipment (CPE) priced below U.S. $500. Product plans for 2000 include W-OFDM technology-based wireless products built with the ASIC chip. Wi-LAN is also developing faster FPGAs and ASICs to address requirements up to and beyond the 54 megabits per second (Mbps) of the IEEE 802.11a and ETSI BRAN HiperLAN/2. Wi-LAN is targeting to demonstrate wireless data rates of 90 Mbps this year and 155 Mbps in 2001.

The W-OFDM Advantage

W-OFDM is Wi-LAN's variation of OFDM that further improves its characteristics and enables low cost broadband applications. It is the most spectrally efficient technology known today. Its spectral characteristics enable high bits-per-second-per-Hz as well as tighter packing of channels. These two features increase the overall bandwidth efficiency. The signal reception is corrected for distortions allowing greater transmission speeds and processes the signal to maximize the range. W-OFDM allows lower-power, multipoint radio frequency (RF) networks to be implemented, minimizing interference with adjacent networks. Once installed, these systems can be easily expanded to meet the user's changing needs.

About Wi-LAN

Wi-LAN, based in Calgary, Alberta, is a leading innovator in the field of high-speed wireless data communications, specializing in high-speed Internet access, LAN/WAN extension and wireless access. Wi-LAN is a founding member of the OFDM Forum and its patented W-OFDM technology is necessary for implementing the IEEE 802.11a and ETSI BRAN HiperLAN/2 standards. Wi-LAN's products have been sold in more than 50 countries on six continents.

Wi-LAN's common shares trade on The Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "WIN." Detailed information on Wi-LAN can be found on the Web at http://www.wi-lan.com.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained in this news release.