Much like the paper which still dominates our so-called paperless offices, there remain a heck of a lot of cables in a supposedly wireless world. The problem is being wired has always been faster than going wireless, or it was...
Back in May the tech sector got itself hot and bothered about a truly next generation standard: 'WiGig'. The reason was simple, a fantasy-sounding WiFi technology (bandwidth of up to 7Gbit - 7,000Mbit) had suddenly become strikingly real after its technology gained the formal backing of the WiFi Alliance. This is the group which holds the global 'WiFi' trademark and controls the 'WiFi Certified' programme which has dominated every mainstream WiFi standard to date.
This week WiGig significantly strengthened its hand again by gaining the support of VESA (the Video Electronics Standards Association) to co-develop the wireless specification of DisplayPort using WiGig technology. On top of this WiGig chose to announce the finalisation of its application specs meaning the lock down of display interfaces and PC peripherals. It also added a new supporter in the shape of AMD, though this is no biggie when the likes of Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, Toshiba, Nokia, Nvidia, NEC, Cisco and influential chipmakers Broadcom and Atheros are already on its board of directors. If the tech world was hot and bothered before, it is positively panting now.
Consequently we pulled up a virtual chair alongside WiGig (Wireless Gigabit) Alliance Board Member and Chairman of VESA, Bruce Montag who is also on the Senior Technical Staff at Dell (show-off). So if you're wondering how close is WiGig to being market ready, what hurdles still lie ahead and is it all too good to be true then we have the answers.
"[The VESA deal] is the next step in WiGig's evolution" said Montag. "[Unlike HDMI] DisplayPort can include video, audio and data. It is a bi-directional channel that enables data to go both ways and WiGig also supports this meaning they are an ideal match... The way to think of this is really multi-gig WiFi that can do wireless HDMI, but also does data." In essence then a multi-pronged attack on everything from existing WiFi standards to wireless USB and wireless HDMI: one connection to rule them all.
