For those of you who have ever cursed the maze of cables you need to dock your laptop or connect it to your cell phone, PC display, or TV, you might be interested in recent news from the Wireless Gigabit Alliance. Some of you might even be sifting through the initial Techmeme buzz on sites like Wi-Fi Networking News and VentureBeat. Today's developments bring us a step closer to high-bandwidth wireless technology that enables cable-free connectivity to displays, docking stations, and other peripherals. In my view, there are two things worth highlighting: the Wireless Gigabit Alliance announced the release of version 1.0 of the WiGig specification and Adopter program. WiGig brings multi-gigabit wireless capability to a variety of devices, including PCs and handhelds. It can also support “tri-band” Wi-Fi operation (Wi-Fi plus WiGig) in a single device.
Secondly, the Wireless Gigabit Alliance and the Wi-Fi Alliance announced a strategic partnership to enable and certify multi-gigabit interoperability between PCs, consumer electronics devices, displays, and hand-held devices. Dell serves on the board of directors of both organizations and helped shape the cooperative partnership among member companies.
WiGig operates in the 60-GHz spectrum–which means high bandwidth over short distances–ideal for cable-replacement applications. Its focus is on cable-free connectivity to displays, peripherals, and hand-held devices…supporting consumer and commercial uses that existing Wi-Fi wireless LAN technology can’t accommodate. This means everything from multi-gigabit file synchronization to notebook docking, 3D gaming, interactive high-definition content, high-resolution & high color depth displays, as well as wireless I/O profiles for USB, Ethernet, and PCI Express. WiGig has designed-in power efficiency and defines scalable performance profiles to manage power consumption on battery-powered devices. All this, and it’s also compatible with Wi-Fi technology.
The first WiGig compatible radios should appear in 2011, with products such as wireless docks, PCs, displays, and hand-held devices following in 2012.