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rick.merritt
Still more options: I just heard from Celeno, another fast Wi-Fi variant, that ...
LarryM99
This actually kind of makes sense in a flat-panel-mounted-on-a-wall kind of ...
Trio fires volleys in high-speed wireless war
Rick Merritt
1/4/2011 11:05 AM EST
SAN JOSE – Amimon, Cavium Networks and SiBeam will unveil design wins at the Consumer Electronics Show for their competing high-end wireless technologies. But none will stand out as a clear winner in what one analyst described as a hypercompetitive multi-billion dollar opportunity.
All three companies promote their technologies for applications such as providing high def video links among TVs, PCs and mobile devices. The CES announcements should be taken with a grain of salt because exhibitors often show tech demos in Las Vegas that never become shipping products.
Nevertheless, "they all have a good shot, and all will have products this year which means we will see gigabit wireless LANs in advance of IEEE standards," said Craig Mathias, principal of consulting firm Farpoint Group.
For its part, Amimon will show its WHDI chips used in a Haier TV via an external slot that accepts a module. WHDI will also find support in tablets from First International Computer and two lesser known companies, PC-to-TV adapters from AsusTek and LG Innotek and a projector from Vivitek.
Two other big China TV makers—TCL and Hisense—have said they back the approach but have yet to announce any products supporting it. Competitor SiBeam claims Amimon has lost previously announced design wins in TVs, adapters and projectors with Sharp, Sony, Sanyo and Belkin.
Analyst Mathias said he was "amazingly impressed" with test results of a $199 BriteView WHDI adapter that carried 1080-progressive video from his basement to second story bedrooms. "I've seen lots of impressive demos, but this one blew me away," he said.
Amimon said its chips cost about $10 and consume 2W for 1080-progressive video and 1W for 720p. Maxim provides a second source for Amimon's RF chip and the company is in discussions to license its baseband to a second source before the end of 2011.
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iniewski
1/4/2011 11:24 AM EST
It will be very interesting to see how this wireless battle shakes out, stakes are high. Gb/s throughput at sub 1W power level is very impressive. But I would not discount response from 802.11 camp. From purely engineering point of view which is better 60 GHz transmission or 2.4 (5) GHz? Kris
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LarryM99
1/4/2011 4:23 PM EST
The real gates for this are A) Can they do it? (Close to yes, apparently), B) Can it be cheap enough? (Questionable), and C) Does it do something that people want to do? Even if it works well for a single data stream, what happens when you set up two of them in the same space? This is worth watching, but I am not yet convinced.
Larry M.
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JMN
1/4/2011 4:29 PM EST
I think there will be 2 types of solutions :
1) HDMI cable replacement : 2 boxes each connected with an HDMI cable to the source and the sink devices, boxes being wirelessly communicating. Of course one of the box could be integrated in the TV (or the sink device). This approach uses dedicated hardware and can provide (very) low latency performance enabling game usage. WHDI and WirelessHD solutions are of this type.
2) Wireless HD video link : 1 box connected with an HDMI cable to the TV, box being wirelessly communicating with (a) source device(s) featuring a standard wireless port (such as 802.11n) driven by a dedicated software. As the source hardware is not dedicated for HD video transfer, compression and buffering are used, which is fine for watching movies but prevents this solution for game usage. intel WiDi and WiFi based solutions are of this type.
Jean-Marc
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Warren
1/4/2011 4:54 PM EST
It looks like there is [could be] a fairly steep cost curve in reaching from #2 solution to #1 solution and this, for me, supports your assertion that two standards will emerge. Maybe teh volume (#2) solution is established (Intel Wi-Di) and so the next interesting thing might be: is there a #1 solution for the TV-side that minimizes their cost burden while supporting both solutions.
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bobbytsai
1/4/2011 6:15 PM EST
so many companies have tried selling into this market for years. (vixs 2003, broadcom multimedia wifi 2004, atheros multimedia chipset 2004) what is so different about these solutions.
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LarryM99
1/5/2011 1:30 PM EST
This actually kind of makes sense in a flat-panel-mounted-on-a-wall kind of installation. It also can be advantageous on the super thin TVs, where physical connectors are a real problem. Now all they have to do is perfect beamed power and all of the cords can go away.
Larry M.
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rick.merritt
1/5/2011 1:39 PM EST
Still more options: I just heard from Celeno, another fast Wi-Fi variant, that said Technicolor will use its chips in set-top boxes and ZyXel will use it in a media streaming system…And TransferJet, Sony's ultrawideband technology, will also be on display at CES.
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