Intel launched its UWB design project about five years ago, as part of its new business-initiatives group. According to , Intel business units determined they could buy UWB chips cost-effectively from other vendors if needed, rather than creating their own. Intel has investments in Staccato and another UWB start-up, .

That decision was actually made earlier in 2008, and widely known among OEMs, according to Broockman. "We decided to go after the PC laptop market [ourselves] because we saw they had done all they had intended to do in that space," he says.

According to some reports, WiQuest had been struggling to move from a two-chip to a one-chip UWB product, and didn't yet support the multiple frequency bands needed for a global UWB silicon product.