IBM trots out wireless chip for high-def files

Iria · Feb 6, 2006, 03:37 PM

If you dream of a living room without a tangle of cables connecting the DVD player to the TV to the stereo, IBM has come up with the chip for you.

The company has produced chips based on the evolving 802.15.3c specification, which will be capable of passing high-definition files and other content at distances of around 5 to 10 meters, said Brian Gaucher, research staff member at IBM. Current samples of the chip run right now at more than 600 megabits per second, he said. The goal is to get these chips up to 1.4 to 1.5 gigabits per second.

"We're looking at this for consumer applications, like high-definition video transfer," he said. "You can get conference room coverage. We are not really looking at wall penetration."

A wireless chip that can transfer files rapidly over short distances has long been a goal of the tech industry but universal acceptance has proved elusive. Bluetooth spent years in standards committee. Although currently embedded in products, it has hardly become a universally used standard. Bluetooth also did not become a wireless standard for getting to the Internet, something backers originally envisioned. Similarly, Universal WideBand, or UWB, got stuck in standards stalemate for a while.

The chips from IBM rely on the portion of the radio spectrum from roughly 30 to 300 GHz, which is known as the "millimeter wave frequency bands" because the actual length of the electromagnetic wave in a signal in these bands is measured in millimeters. Right now, mostly military contractors use this space, in part because the equipment required to carry these signals adequately has been expensive and difficult to produce.
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Read More / Source: News.com

Feb 6, 2006, 03:37 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	IBM trots out wireless chip for high-def files If you dream of a living room without a tangle of cables connecting the DVD player to the TV to the stereo, IBM has come up with the chip for you. The company has produced chips based on the evolving 802.15.3c specification, which will be capable of passing high-definition files and other content at distances of around 5 to 10 meters, said Brian Gaucher, research staff member at IBM. Current samples of the chip run right now at more than 600 megabits per second, he said. The goal is to get these chips up to 1.4 to 1.5 gigabits per second. "We're looking at this for consumer applications, like high-definition video transfer," he said. "You can get conference room coverage. We are not really looking at wall penetration." A wireless chip that can transfer files rapidly over short distances has long been a goal of the tech industry but universal acceptance has proved elusive. Bluetooth spent years in standards committee. Although currently embedded in products, it has hardly become a universally used standard. Bluetooth also did not become a wireless standard for getting to the Internet, something backers originally envisioned. Similarly, Universal WideBand, or UWB, got stuck in standards stalemate for a while. The chips from IBM rely on the portion of the radio spectrum from roughly 30 to 300 GHz, which is known as the "millimeter wave frequency bands" because the actual length of the electromagnetic wave in a signal in these bands is measured in millimeters. Right now, mostly military contractors use this space, in part because the equipment required to carry these signals adequately has been expensive and difficult to produce. ___________ Read More / Source: News.com