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Intel Promises UWB Products By 2006

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'."

8 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Tricorders by Anonym1ty · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yup now we know Star Trek had it again... Just hold the tricorder near the computer and everything zips over.

    I see this being useful in pda sized devices. move your home movies from one place to another, from you cam corder to your computer to your pda photo/video album

    What I can't wait for is technology like this to become common place and I can't wait to see what uses we'll find for it that no one has thought of just quite yet.

    So far I see using the home computer as you storage area and editor for the data that is used by devices to start and being able to transfer the data easily will be a big step in that direction.

  2. Finally, wireless monitors! by Suidae · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does this mean I can get rid of all my video switches and just connect the keyboard and mouse to the monitor and connect to whichever CPU I want?

    That would kick ass.

  3. Steroids. by Xunker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can we get rid of this expression? Please? It's, like totally, from the 1980's. It's so aniquated and cliche'd that's it's not funny (literally anf figuratively).

    A better 21st century expression would probably "Bluetooth on a double-hit of Viagra".

    --
    Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
  4. Useless by Hayzeus · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Whats the use of eliminating data cables if you still have power cables?

    But just up the power of the transmitter to a gigawatt or so, and then you might have something! Safetey, schmaftey! Once we're all wearing those lead-lined trousers and codpieces everything will be perfectly safe.

  5. Hmm.. no cables so how does the data move? by WinPimp2K · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh yeah. it is wireless.
    So,that means there is some type of receiver with a fair amount of processing power to turn that lovely EM burst back into nice clean digital data.

    A receiver in every device, and of course a transmitter as well which uses that same processing power to turn digital data into EM bursts.

    So, no more cables to hook up your monitor or speakers or other devices. There are some definite possibilities for convergence between HDTV and computer monitors here - why continue to build TV tuner circutry into your video display device? after all, you don't have built in FM tuners in every speaker.

    BUT:
    This sure sounds like just the sort of massive technological change that is exactly what the DRM people are looking for to piggyback Pay-Per-Everything onto. Certainly there will be plenty of processing power to implement some nasty strong encryption scheme in the UWB hardware.

    --

    You either believe in rational thought or you don't
  6. Re:Possible applications of UWB by SerpentMage · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And this is where I would even consider that this technology never be implemented. I read someplace else that airlines may do a blanket ban on all electronic devices if UWB does conflict with airplanes. Imagine how boring those long flights will be now!

    --

    "You can't make a race horse of a pig"
    "No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
  7. ./ headlines are so accurate! by Altheus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does the following sound anything like a promise, or more like a vague prediction?

    "We expect initial market deployment of standards-based UWB solutions to be sometime in the 2005-2006 timeframe," said Ben Manny, director of wireless technology development at Intel Research and Development.

  8. Rather have moderate date rate over huge distance by HeyBob! · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My dedicated wireless (3Mbps) is good for about 10km and has to be line of sight. I'd rather have the same speed over a longer distance with no LOS conditions.