14 DAY TRIAL // Wireless connectivity is one of the newest obsessions in the industry, and 802.11 companies have made a habit out of exterminating those dusty cables piling up under floors, rugs or even furniture. Most of them succeed in implementing wireless solutions, but they are quickly discouraged by the snail-like speeds.
The WirelessHD standard has been born to substitute for the HDMI cable, and defines a device operating in the 60GHz wireless spectrum. It can wirelessly carry the high-definition information at a transfer rate of 4GB per second over a maximum distance of 8 meters. The Pulse-Link standard however, can only deliver up to 890Mbps at 2.4M or 120Mbps at 12M. The situation is about to change, as a team from Australia's NICTA (National ICT Australia) have come up with a CMOS-based chip that can transfer up to 5 Gbps at a distance of 10 meters.
The result may seem astounding, but there are even more new features implemented into NICTA's transmitter. For instance, its small size (25 square millimeters) makes it suitable for inclusion even in miniature device. It also uses a tiny 1-millimeter antenna and costs less than $10, which makes it the ideal candidate for both home theater appliances and portable media players that are able to stream high-definition content.
There is a single catch that slightly spoils its perfection: the power consumption. The chip draws almost 2 watts of power, which prevents it from conquering the mobile sector yet. According to Professor Stan Skafidas, the project team leader, the team has spent more than 10 years designing the "GiFi" chip, and he claims that in a short time, every consumer device will adopt it.
NICTA will also found a new company this year that will take care of other aspects of the chip business, such as marketing and distribution. Research and development are estimated at about $10 million; moreover, the GiFi chip will not start mass-production earlier than 2009. The startup is closely working with the IEEE consortium, that will evaluate and ratify its standard specifications, according to the IEEE 802.15.3c.