WiDeFi Selects Atmel as SiGe Foundry Partner

    Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

    MELBOURNE, Fla. and SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2005--

    - Atmel to provide design-for-production support and foundry services for WiDeFi's Xtender(TM) family of 802.11 repeater chipsets -

    WiDeFi, Inc. a fabless semiconductor company that improves coverage for standards-based wireless networks, today announced the selection of Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a global leader in the development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions, as its foundry partner for WiDeFi's Xtender(TM) family of 802.11 repeater chipsets.
    WiDeFi's decision to partner with Atmel was based on Atmel's advanced silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (Bi-CMOS) together with its collaborative approach to working with its customers throughout the design process, accelerating time-to-market.
    "Atmel offers a unique combination of benefits to WiDeFi that we couldn't find with any other foundry," said Jim Proctor, WiDeFi founder and CEO. "The company's rich experience and expertise in wireless LAN and cellular technologies, its leadership position in SiGe BiCMOS technologies, and its US-based foundry services and design support ensure that we can provide our customers with the highest quality product while meeting their time-to-market demands."
    The first product to benefit from this partnership is WiDeFi's WLAN Xtender. WiDeFi's flagship product, the WLAN Xtender is a new fundamental wireless network element that doubles the range of WLAN networks with twice the throughput and lower cost than the top competing solutions.
    "The market opportunity for range extension solutions is significant. The combination of WiDeFi's talented design team coupled with our design support and foundry services, will ensure rapid adoption of this unique, patent-pending technology, and meet the demand for wireless range extension," said Chris Baumann, director of BiCMOS products for Atmel Corporation.

    About WiDeFi

    WiDeFi is a fabless semiconductor company developing unique, standards-based wireless solutions for rapid-growth, mass-market applications. Our chipset and software innovations enable cost-effective enhancements to wireless network coverage, performance, QoS, capacity, security and ease of use. WiDeFi's flagship product, the WLAN Xtender(TM), is a new, fundamental wireless network element that doubles the range of WLAN networks with twice the throughput and a lower cost than the best competing solutions. WiDeFi also offers reference designs and a Technology Transfer and New Product Introduction Program to support the introduction of OEM and ODM customer reference designs. WiDeFi is a privately held company headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, and is ventured-backed by The Aurora Funds, and Axiom Ventures, Draper Richards, Inflexion, Camp Ventures, and Grace Venture Partners.
    For more information on WiDeFi and its products, visit www.widefi.com or call (+1) 321-725-1520.

    About Atmel

    Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere You Are(R).

    WiDeFi, WiDeFi logo and Xtender are trademarks of WiDeFi, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

    (C) Atmel Corporation 2005. All rights reserved. Atmel(R), logo and combinations thereof, Everywhere You Are(R) and others, are registered trademarks, and others are the trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

--30--KC/bo*

CONTACT: WiDeFi Media Contacts: Boldbrook Marketing & Public Relations, Inc. Vicki Sakakeeny, 781-475-8720 vicki@boldbrook.com or WiDeFi Inc. Al Petrick, 321-725-1520 x204 apetrick@widefi.com or Atmel Press Contacts: Vicki McCann, 719-540-1724 Director Marketing Communications - USA vmccann@cso.atmel.com or Veronique Sablereau, + 33 1 30 60 70 68 Corporate Communications Manager - Europe veronique.sablereau@atmel.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA FLORIDA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS NETWORKING INTERNET E-COMMERCE SOURCE: WiDeFi, Inc.

Copyright Business Wire 2005