Much has been made of the smartbook platform’s mission statement to ship with integrated 3G, but the evolution of Wi-Fi is also a key aspect to their connectivity.
With this in mind it is interesting to see the ‘WiGig Alliance’ has announced the completion of its proposed next generation wireless specification which will operate at an incredible 7 gigabits per second. In real terms this is 10x faster than 802.11n, Wi-Fi’s current top dog. It means today’s bandwidth problems both in the home and at wireless hotspots should be a thing of the past.
Even though WiGig relies on a 60-GHz frequency which might make radio chips more difficult and expensive to produce, it can claim to be compatible with Wi-Fi, HDMI, DisplayPort, and Wireless USB at the same time – a critical feature for smartbooks that utilize HDMI for video uplinks. WiWig is also making friends and influencing people, having landed Nvidia this week as its latest big name backer. It joins AMD, SK Telecom and TMC as early WiGig proponents. All four will review the completed specification during Q1 2010 while WiGig Alliance looks to add further supporters.
It may not be entirely smooth running however, as the non-profit IEEE (which has managed to make both its 802.11g and n specifications industry standards) is working on 802.11ac, a 1 gigabit per second spec it hopes to have ready by 2012. Both it and WiGig are backwards compatible with current Wi-Fi technology too, so no matter who wins out, the long term beneficiaries will be consumers.
Which is just how we like it…
Gordon
