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Intel Promises UWB Products By 2006

Posted by timothy on from the that's-a-long-way-off dept.

prostoalex writes "Ultra WideBand radio is a technology that allows transmitting huge amounts of data over a short distance at very low power. At Intel Developer Forum this week Ben Manny, director of wireless technology development at Intel Research and Development, promised market deployment of UWB-based solutions by 2005-2006. Possible applications of UWB can be discovered in this article that also refers to UWB as 'Bluetooth on steroids'."

4 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Possible applications of UWB by skydude_20 · · Score: 3, Informative

    can be taking down planes

    --
    Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
  2. Not so fast. A laptop ban on aircraft is more like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    NASA recently did some testing with UWB devices on, in and around aircraft. The results are pretty scary. GPS receivers just stopped working, no surprises there. The real scare came from the way TCAS reacted... the displays just went blank.

    The NASA tests prompted aviation administration to bring up the possibility of banning *all* laptops from flights in the UK on the basis that some laptop manufacturers propose to install UWB capability in laptops.

    Since the airlines are in the business of flying people about, not providing free emissions testing on electronic equipment to all comers, the only logical, practical route is to ban all laptops and other UWB-possible devices from all flights.

    There's still work to be done before UWB gets off the ground, literally.

  3. Re:Not so fast. A laptop ban on aircraft is more l by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    OK, a URL to back up my claims. Turns out, the UWB was messing up with ILS as well. Ugly Ugly Stuff...

    From Google's cache (since the original is gone), Aviation Today, Avionics: Unremitting UWB Issue

  4. UWB patents by tiohero · · Score: 2, Informative

    The firm has applied for an array of patents to cover its wired UWB technology and apparently is the only company to use this approach

    I've noticed a disturbing feeding frenzy for UWB patent applications similar to the internet business models. Somehow I can't believe that feeding the UWB signal down a cable TV transmission line instead of an antenna is a non-obvious patentable idea.

    Here's a current list of some of the patents around UWB. Notice that only a few groups hold almost all of the cards:
    http://www.aetherwire.com/CDROM/General/titles.htm l