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Four companies prep wave of 60 GHz chips
Rick Merritt
7/23/2012 8:00 AM EDT
More startups, giants to weigh in
At least five other startups are working on WiGig products including Beam Networks (Rehovot, Israel); Blu-Wireless Technology (Bristol, U.K.); Nitero (Austin); Peraso Technologies (Toronto); and Tensorcom (Carlsbad, Calif.). Most declined to talk to EE Times at press time.
Peraso plans to announce a product in the first quarter targeting mobile systems, said chief executive Ron Glibbery, who declined to give more details. For its part, Beam Networks expects to discuss a 60 GHz transceiver before the end of the year, said a company spokeswoman.
Wilocity previously described its initial chip as a 65nm device named Marlin that consumes about 2W average power to deliver up to 3.5 Gbits/s of data. It is working on a second-generation chip called Sparrow it hopes will ship by the end of 2013 capable of 2.5 Gbits/s data rates while consuming 500 milliwatts of power, suitable for smartphones and tablets.
Market watcher Forward Concepts estimates as many as 1.3 billion handsets will support Wi-Fi in 2016, up from 508 million in 2011. “The vast majority are 802.11n, and we expect 802.11ac [the 5 GHz standard] to creep in [starting mid-2013], becoming dominant at over 50 percent by about 2016,” said principal Will Strauss.
So far, the WiGig Alliance has held two plugfests where vendors tested interoperability of their devices and plans more starting in November. Ten companies participated in the most recent event in late June where the full system (MAC, PHY and radio) was tested for the first time.
The 60 GHz technology appears to be set to offer unique value.
The chips could drive data rates as fast as 4.6 Gbits/s at 2.5W, said Grodzinsky. That’s far above both the 450 Mbit/s rates of today’s .11n chips and the roughly Gbit/s rates of the .11ac chips now appearing. At sub-watt rates needed for smartphones, 60 GHz promises rates up to 2.3 Gbits/s, again far above .11n and .11ac at roughly 150 and 433 Mbits/s, respectively.
Grodzinsky said costs of the 60 GHz solutions are roughly in line with where the .11n generation started before it hit high volumes. At the 65nm node, the Wilocity implementation requires separate baseband and radio chips, including a 16-element active antenna module for the RF portion.
Startup SiBeam, acquired in early 2011 by Silicon Image, started the 60 GHz push with a module aimed at set-top boxes and flat-screen TVs it first described in 2007. The WiGig partners shifted the field, creating new specifications now baked into the IEEE standard that Silicon Image said it will support.
The IEEE standard is going through the final formalities of ratification but is not expected to change. Formal interoperability tests for the WiGig spec are expected to be in place by the end of the year.
Several shoes have yet to fall. Three of the largest Wi-Fi chip suppliers—Broadcom, Intel and Mediatek—have yet to reveal their plans for 60 GHz.
At least five other startups are working on WiGig products including Beam Networks (Rehovot, Israel); Blu-Wireless Technology (Bristol, U.K.); Nitero (Austin); Peraso Technologies (Toronto); and Tensorcom (Carlsbad, Calif.). Most declined to talk to EE Times at press time.
Peraso plans to announce a product in the first quarter targeting mobile systems, said chief executive Ron Glibbery, who declined to give more details. For its part, Beam Networks expects to discuss a 60 GHz transceiver before the end of the year, said a company spokeswoman.
Wilocity previously described its initial chip as a 65nm device named Marlin that consumes about 2W average power to deliver up to 3.5 Gbits/s of data. It is working on a second-generation chip called Sparrow it hopes will ship by the end of 2013 capable of 2.5 Gbits/s data rates while consuming 500 milliwatts of power, suitable for smartphones and tablets.
Market watcher Forward Concepts estimates as many as 1.3 billion handsets will support Wi-Fi in 2016, up from 508 million in 2011. “The vast majority are 802.11n, and we expect 802.11ac [the 5 GHz standard] to creep in [starting mid-2013], becoming dominant at over 50 percent by about 2016,” said principal Will Strauss.
So far, the WiGig Alliance has held two plugfests where vendors tested interoperability of their devices and plans more starting in November. Ten companies participated in the most recent event in late June where the full system (MAC, PHY and radio) was tested for the first time.
The 60 GHz technology appears to be set to offer unique value.
The chips could drive data rates as fast as 4.6 Gbits/s at 2.5W, said Grodzinsky. That’s far above both the 450 Mbit/s rates of today’s .11n chips and the roughly Gbit/s rates of the .11ac chips now appearing. At sub-watt rates needed for smartphones, 60 GHz promises rates up to 2.3 Gbits/s, again far above .11n and .11ac at roughly 150 and 433 Mbits/s, respectively.
Grodzinsky said costs of the 60 GHz solutions are roughly in line with where the .11n generation started before it hit high volumes. At the 65nm node, the Wilocity implementation requires separate baseband and radio chips, including a 16-element active antenna module for the RF portion.
Startup SiBeam, acquired in early 2011 by Silicon Image, started the 60 GHz push with a module aimed at set-top boxes and flat-screen TVs it first described in 2007. The WiGig partners shifted the field, creating new specifications now baked into the IEEE standard that Silicon Image said it will support.
The IEEE standard is going through the final formalities of ratification but is not expected to change. Formal interoperability tests for the WiGig spec are expected to be in place by the end of the year.
Several shoes have yet to fall. Three of the largest Wi-Fi chip suppliers—Broadcom, Intel and Mediatek—have yet to reveal their plans for 60 GHz.
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rick.merritt
7/23/2012 2:06 PM EDT
Is 60 GHz the future of Wi-Fi?
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PJames
7/23/2012 8:06 PM EDT
It will never replace the lower bands as the range is so much less.
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jakmal
7/23/2012 3:33 PM EDT
802.11ad will probably emerge as a complementary technology to 802.11ac ; Problem with 60 GHz is the range issue. If I remember correctly, Wilocity only claimed in-room communication with WiGig. In order to cover the whole household, 60 GHz doesn't seem to fit the bill right now.
That said, 60 GHz does enable much higher bandwidth, so it is definitely useful for connecting 'wireless' peripherals to mobile workstations / ultrabooks. The big task for Wilocity (who happen to be a bit early to the party right now) is to convince the market to adopt this technology.
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BOMBOVA
7/23/2012 4:34 PM EDT
Rick, if you mean by the dominant use future , i don't think so. this search for consumer bandwidth has diminishing human performance returns.
As individuals we only need 50 Mega bit second data rates, for an individual. some of us don't want to turn into data idiots. Cheers.
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rick.merritt
7/23/2012 7:04 PM EDT
I don't expect 11ad will replace 11ac given the short range of 60 GHz.
What I wonder is if 11ad support will someday become a check box for mainstream Wi-Fi chips--or not.
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eewiz
7/23/2012 9:57 PM EDT
Unless we have new applications that demand such high speed, this may not be necessary. Currently the most popular use of WiFi is to connect to a router or some peripherals. None of this require a 3Gbps connection.
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Battar
7/24/2012 1:46 AM EDT
60GHz has it's own pros and cons. It doesn't work outside whene it's raining because the attenuation is too great. The fact that it doesn't work greater than room range is actually a benefit - you can set up independent networks in adjacent rooms with no interference or possibility of "eavesdropping". This makes the networks inherently secure - a huge advantage. Now consider the application of a 60GHz link for an entertainment network...
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Robotics Developer
7/24/2012 1:36 PM EDT
I am assuming that the range limitation is a function of both the transmit frequency and the power. Given the high frequency being used does the current "in-room" limiting come from the walls or distance? I am guessing walls, given the comment about rain attenuation. I could see a future product like 3D TV to headsets for "surround theater" experiences - in a room. The 60Ghz carrier would have enough bandwidth to support a number of users per room. Is this the future of movie theaters?
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Bill SJ
7/24/2012 4:07 PM EDT
I must missed something here. All these WiFi 11ac 11ad etc. provides ample bandwidth for AV streaming in home, blah, blah. But majority consumer has 1.5Mbs to 6.0Mbs downstream from Internet. Unless consumers create HD contents themselves in house, which is occasionally at best.
I still use 11G on the DSL modem/router. I subscribe 3Mbs but AT&T give me less than 1.5Mps effectively and AT&T make little web (news) video clip painful to watch so AT&T can sell UVerse to me.
What is the point of 11ac 11ad?
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Bert22306
7/24/2012 4:21 PM EDT
My take on this is, the original 60 GHz proposals were for "personal area networks," i.e. 10 meter range or so, and were oriented towards the same tasks that previously the much-hyped ultrawideband techniques were supposed to fill.
Now the IEEE 802.11ad work has also adopted 60 GHz, but their goal is to equal the range performance of all other 802.11 variants. So the thinking is, you used the lower 2.4 or 5 GHz frequency bands to locate the 60 GHz users, and then you use beam forming to get the range.
Yes, it does seem that the IEEE wants to make 802.11ad the next evolutionary step. And the much greater bi rate should help support more use cases, e.g. even sending uncompressed HDTV, e.g. from a receiver to a display, without wires.
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Bill SJ
7/24/2012 6:06 PM EDT
1080p 30fps uncompressed HD video takes 1.5Gbs
Blueray: 60fps 3Gbs
Can 11ad do that?
What's wrong with video compression? The AV feed into your home is already compressed at least once.
WiFi-Display will be happy with 11n.
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Bert22306
7/24/2012 6:16 PM EDT
The goal of those "personal area net" UWB schemes, and of the 60 GHz schemes that have replaced UWB, is to have a wireless equivalent of links such as HDMI. So you can go to "dumb" displays, without having to support the decoders in the displays (which are subject to early obsolescence, among other things).
So IEEE 802.11ad is simply saying, let's incorporate those use cases in the new standard. Of course, actually supporting a network interface, 802.11 style, is quite a bit more complicated than just a point to point 60 GHz link. But nevertheless.
In this use case, the idea is to allow flat panel displays hanging on walls to be free of cables. Cables which are otherwise needed for your cable box, or DVD player, game box, what have you.
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I_B_GREEN
7/25/2012 3:12 PM EDT
My windows 7 notebook just crashed when I installed the latest "Patch"
If my external backup hard drive had the 60 Ghz chipset then it could do backup and restore functions. One hard drive could do backups for a handful of computers in a cubical area network (CUAN, CUBAN,? ...CAN all ready taken.
Another solid market opp for 60Ghz.
Put in all the software protection crap needed in the docking station or or the hard drive to offload the user CPU, battery, memory.
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R Sweeney
7/29/2012 12:53 PM EDT
All I ask is wireless HDMI. It's not just the wires, but the reliability and sensitivity to EMP from lightning. The 40v surge standard just isn't high enough.
Everytime lightning strikes within 500 ft, half the HDMI ports in the house either fault, requiring power resests or die, sometimes taking the conencted devices with them.
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James Walker
3/31/2013 6:44 PM EDT
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