To the casual observer, it might seem like a multitude of companies are launching WiMAX chipsets and that the sheer competitive density and variety of approaches in the chipset market will create a lot of confusion, a lot of losers and only a couple of winners.

The reality is that when you compare the burgeoning market for WiMAX chipsets to the historical example set forth by the Wi-Fi market, semiconductor development seems to be proceeding in a fairly sane fashion.

“When you look at WiMAX, there are only five or six companies that are doing chipsets right now,” said Dave Sumi, vice president of marketing and business development for TeleCIS Wireless, one of the vendors that's developing chipsets for WiMAX. “In Wi-Fi, there were once about 40, and that eventually got down to about three. Prices came down so much, and no one could differentiate.”

The WiMAX semiconductor market is in its earliest stages of growth, and the only concern about chipset prices is how to bring them down to a manageable level. The oft-stated price threshold for WiMAX modems to be broadly adopted by users is about $200, but Ron Resnick, director of industry programs for Intel and president of the WiMAX Forum, recently said at a forum meeting that customer premises equipment prices should slim down to around $50 over the next three years to keep pace with market expectations.

Intel launched its Rosedale WiMAX chip in mid-April, followed just days later by Fujitsu Microelectronics' chip launch. Wavesat began shipping chips around the beginning of the year, and Sequans Communications made news with its own platform shortly after. TeleCIS is planning to be the fifth entrant in a race in which every horse is claiming a distinct advantage.

Though TeleCIS has yet to formally launch its chipset — it plans to do so during the fourth quarter of this year — the company isn't terribly worried about showing up late to the party that is just beginning. And it also has no qualms about trying to build something new in the decimated landscape of Wi-Fi semiconductors.

Sumi said one of the ways TeleCIS plans to make a difference is with a multi-protocol system-on-a-chip that supports both 802.16 WiMAX and 802.11 Wi-Fi technology.

“802.11 is not going away. There will be a next-generation wireless LAN,” he said. “The users don't need to know anything about connectivity, but they'll expect capability.”