14 DAY TRIAL // At the Certified Wireless USB Developers Conference in Taipei, Jeff Ravencraft, Intel's technology strategist and chairman and president of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), has commented upon the compatibility issue surrounding the new Wireless USB technology and the latest operating system from Microsoft. In this context he confirmed that the upcoming Windows Vista will not comprise native support for Wireless USB. Market implementation of the Wireless USB will therefore be problematic as not only Vista, but also all the other platforms do not support the new technology scheduled for release by the end of 2007. In this context, Microsoft's product poses the biggest issues as it is run by the vast majority of machines.
The Certified Wireless USB development kit, which will become available as early as next month, is equipped with standard PCI card or a USB dongle. The devices will operate in the band group ranging from 3.1GHz to 4.7GHz, and are capable of transmitting data at speeds of 480 MbB/sec at distances up to 3 meters and at 10 MB/sec at up to 10 meters.
The Redmond Company stated that it supports Intel's efforts to develop and implement the Wireless USB technology, and that, while Vista won't offer native backing, it will deliver patches to support device drivers and protocols. Market estimates for the Wireless USB devices project an increase from an initial 400.000 units in 2006 to 11 million in 2007. Market estimates go as far as 2010 when Ravencraft claimed that the number of Wireless USB devices will grow to 289.1 millions.