Manhasset, NY -- Sources confirm that Ultrawideband proponent TZero Technologies has shut down operations, becoming yet another fatality in the much-anticipated UWB shakeout that commenced in the Fall of 2008, but which has been accelerated by the economic downturn that has incinerated financing.

To date, that shakeout has claimed WiQuest and Focus Enhancments, with Artimi merging with Staccato. Texas Instruments early on quit chip development and dispersed its design team and, while Intel dropped its own chip development in favor of what emerges from startups such as Staccato. The list of startups that remain include Wisair and Alereon, with more established companies such as RealTek, ST/NXP Wireless and CSR also in the fray.

Founder and chief technology officer Rajeev Krishnamoorthy played all his cards, right up to the end, talking to EETimes last week about the company's plans to launch a mobile UWB chip that would consume less than 1 W. Krishnamoorthy could not be reached for comment on the company's demise.

The company took a different tack than WiMedia in that it focused on video distribution and designed its chips around that differentiation,