The fledgling wireless technology WiGig passed an important milestone last week with the official release of the technology's specifications, giving member companies the green light to start building products based on the protocol.
WiGig, developed by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, is a short-range wireless technology ten times faster than today's 802.11 speeds, capable of downloading a full-length HD movie in about 45 seconds (compared to 45 minutes over Wi-Fi). Products based on the new standard aren't expected to hit store shelves until 2010.
Will WiGig change how we use technology? Its backers promise it will cut down on the number of unwieldy wires associated with home theatres and could put another nail in the coffin of physical media.
WiGig will pave the way for the "introduction of the next generation of high-performance wireless products - PCs, mobile handsets, TVs and displays, Blu-ray disc players, digital cameras, and many more," said Dr. Ali Sadri, president and chairman of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance.
Here's a quick breakdown of what WiGig could mean to you.
What is WiGig?
WiGig is a technology that hopes to create a "wireless ecosystem of interoperable, high performance devices that work together seamlessly", according to its backers.
The goal is to embed the technology in a host of household components including consumer electronics, handheld devices, and PCs.
WiGig says the standard will enable "instantaneous" file transfers, wireless display and docking, and the streaming high definition audio and video on a variety of devices.
The new standard uses the 60GHz radio band, which allows for much faster data transfer rates than current Wi-Fi technologies that use the 2.4 and 5GHz bands.
Does WiGig compete with Wi-Fi?
No, it doesn't. It complements today's 802.11 Wi-Fi technology. In fact, part of last week's announcement includes a partnership between the Wireless Gigabit Alliance and the Wi-Fi Alliance, the group in charge of the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard.
The two groups will share their respective technology specifications, and work together on expanding Wi-Fi technologies.
Specifically, the two groups will develop a "next-generation Wi-Fi Alliance certification programme supporting Wi-Fi operation in the 60GHz frequency band", and focus on "the development of products supporting 60GHz technology to expand existing Wi-Fi capabilities", according to a WiGig Alliance press release
NEXT PAGE: Will WiGig make surfing the internet faster
- We look at the official specifications from the Wireless GigaBit Alliance
- Will WiGig make surfing the internet faster
Comments
sirjohng said: Perhaps we can have a two speed internet one for the junk and one for the serious stuff It is brilliant thinking that you download your movie at 2Mbps min goverment standard sic and then transfer it across you house at 1Gbps
Nev said: Products based on the new standard arent expected to hit store shelves until 2010 Perhaps a typo or is development continuing at a super fast pace -
Techie said: Hardware aside software isnt up to standard either or the internet that is packed full of social networking junk thats clogging up the data arteries and costing the new tech market a fortune to solve the problem of keeping us at the speed we are now instead of that technology freeing us into a new age of performanceWhat these groups should be investing in is a form of dredger for the internet to get rid of fly-tipping user and sites and free the internet up for better thingsI know this falls off subject but the internet is getting packed with junk like a computer with too much software the internet needs a clean reinstall to be emptied so all this new tech can be of use because if you take away the junk you wont have the stupid people using it to look and add more junk and the internet can then be rebuilt with all our current major wants and demands in mind a perfect marriage of information software and hardware
alan14 said: It is possible but not with domestic kitYou can write to an SSD with RAID1 at huge speeds I reckon in 45 seconds you could write around 15Gb of data which is about 2 hours of divX movie
Cool said: A movie in 45 second now thats impossibleeven a direct Ethernet on copying that much over a hardrive is possibleWhat a load of bull