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New High Speed Wireless Chipset from IBM

YesSir writes to tell us IBM scientists are reporting that they have created a new low-cost wireless chipset that could allow devices to communicate up to ten times faster than current technology. From the article: "Using the IBM-pioneered chip-making technology called silicon germanium, the chipset is able to send and receive information in a portion of the radio spectrum that is both unlicensed and can carry a much higher volume of data, a key advantage as data-intensive digital media formats, such as HDTV, become more pervasive."

62 comments

  1. How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by alexwcovington · · Score: 4, Funny

    These guys just don't like free spectrum.

    --
    (It's never too late to join the Renaissance)
    1. Re:How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 4, Informative

      60GHz signals are absorbed by oxygen (much like 2.4GHz is absorbed by water), so the FCC figured that frequency must be useless and the public might as well be allowed to play with it.

    2. Re:How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by gardyloo · · Score: 1

      60GHz signals are absorbed by oxygen (much like 2.4GHz is absorbed by water), so the FCC figured that frequency must be useless and the public might as well be allowed to play with it.

            Ha! There's such an easy fix to that, but I'm afraid to post it here because some free-bandwidth zealot will take me seriously and do something about it...

    3. Re:How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by DarkSarin · · Score: 1, Funny

      it's as simple as getting rid of all the oxygen...

      --
      "We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
    4. Re:How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by agony_zhou · · Score: 1

      I thought the molecule of oxygen (O2) is not polarized, so it should not absorb EM wave at any frequency by resonance? H2O and CO2 are polarized, and they obsorb 2.45GHz and 915MHz respectively. My chemistry is rusty though.

    5. Re:How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That must suck.

    6. Re:How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by Crizp · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      This deserves a funny mod :)

    7. Re:How long before the FCC closes "the IBM hole"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More research ware.

      I'm still waiting for my holographic memory and anti-gravity boots.

  2. Yeah... by TWX · · Score: 1

    But how long will it take for a damn open source kernel driver to come out? Ndiswrapper is a pain.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Yeah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are likely seeing less OSS Wireless chipset support than before and ndiswrapper will remain only way to use these strange cards under Linux, so get used to it.

    2. Re:Yeah... by arodland · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If IBM actually makes the chips, probably not so long. They're not Broadcom, y'know :)

    3. Re:Yeah... by richlv · · Score: 1

      actually, that is the first thing i actually care about. if there is/will be none - i will avoid wasting my money on that.

      --
      Rich
  3. So basically... by Tuxedo+Jack · · Score: 4, Insightful

    540Mb/s. Wow. Admittedly, this would be excellent for desktop usage in the average organization, but I still can't see wireless being used for servers - gigabit is just too essential to give up, plus there's the issue of setting up the infrastructure to handle 540Mb/s via wireless - I mean, hell, it's hard enough to share 54Mb/s for one access point as is when you've got 10 users on it, but still...

    --

    Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
    1. Re:So basically... by jcgf · · Score: 1

      I agree. Wired is almost always better if you can run the wire. I mean it's faster, cheaper, more secure, and you don't have to worry about interference as much .

    2. Re:So basically... by j.a.mcguire · · Score: 2, Informative

      do you still only get about 60% of the available bandwidth from this new tech with all the overheads? sorta puts it in the 324mb/s from your original 540mb/s but I thought the article only said 5x performance increase? which puts us in the 270mb/s max range @ 60% gives us 162mb/s. more than enough for HDTV which is ~20mb/s. But then 802.11g should also cover that, 54mb/s @ 60% = 32.4mb/s.

    3. Re:So basically... by j.a.mcguire · · Score: 1

      that 20mb/s spec for HDTV I quoted was for 1080 interlaced, I guess for full 1080 progressive you're looking at double that, 40mb/s

  4. Oh crap by dasdrewid · · Score: 4, Funny

    At first, it was just the radio. Nice background noise to do stuff to. Then they made wireless tv sets (like, battery powered...), which was ok. I could take them outside and take a quick break while studying. Then came wireless internet. No longer could I go somewhere and fight the urge to surf simply because I had nothing to surf with, so I began to grow some self-control. But wireless HDTV... Crap. Couldn't they at least wait until I've graduated?

    Maybe they'll at least do something nice, like imbed it in some of those sunglasses with the built-in monitor so I can actually enjoy my lecture classes whilst only giving off the appearance of a hangover (which wouldn't be too far out of the norm...)

    --
    No trespassing. Violators will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
    1. Re:Oh crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "But wireless HDTV..."

      Wireless HDTV OMG what a concept. You could have a TV that all you have to do is plug it into the wall power or batteries and attach some antenna thing. They could have some base transmitter deliver content right to your TV. No messy RG6 to monkey with. Someone should patent this idea.

    2. Re:Oh crap by ACME+Septic · · Score: 1

      But wireless HDTV... Crap. Couldn't they at least wait until I've graduated?

      You're really gonna shit your pants when you figure out what the acronym "OTA" stands for.

    3. Re:Oh crap by Xypheri · · Score: 2, Funny

      but with no wires how are the wire monkeys gonna make their money? i mean.. what will they do without HDMI Cables to shower upon the unwitting masses? after all they have finally gotten those low brow buisness types needing their gold plated USB cables to push all of them 480 mbps.

  5. penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much will the millimeter wavelengths change the penetration through typical materials in a home/office such as:
    wood
    drywall
    concrete
    steel
    Would it have a greater range?

    1. Re:penetration by papasui · · Score: 2, Informative

      higher you go the less dense a material it will pass through.

    2. Re:penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      THe higher you go in EM? I though xray and gamma ray go through very dense material - I am confused.

    3. Re:penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shorter wavelengths have a greater interaction with solid materials. X-Ray's use this basic principle to "sound out" your bones (it's a density scan, basically). Another application is 2.4ghz phones - much of their clarity and range benifits come from the fact that RF radiation will reflect off cielings and foors, etc., and thus can "bounce around" walls rather than go through them.

      Typically, the higher the freq, the shorter the range for the same wattage .. and the greater the interference from solids.

  6. The FCC's performance by Douglas+Simmons · · Score: 0, Troll

    Being a Howard Stern fan, I've been raised as a soldier in the anti-FCC jihad. But washing mouths with soap is only one of many things they do. As this article raises performance and range licensing relationships, how good a job would you say the FCC has done in frequency management?

  7. Oh Great... by DJCacophony · · Score: 1

    How much will I have to pay for yet another router if I want this? Why can't we all just agree on one high-speed wireless standard?

    --
    Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
    1. Re:Oh Great... by ginotech · · Score: 1

      because innovations happen very fast, and that's a good thing. you don't have to get the latest stuff anyway.

  8. Range by binaryDigit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some applications that might now be possible using this 60 GHz technology include wireless personal-area networks (PANs) for intra-office communications in the 10m and below range.

    So range is still a big problem. I'm sure that 10m is in an "ideal" environment as well, so they'll have to work out how to improve the range of this system. I guess the "easy" way would be to simply have repeaters everywhere, I'm sure the folks like Cisco are drooling at that prospect. Also wonder how it will do with interference, and if anyone else has any plans to utilize that area of the spectrum?

    1. Re:Range by TekGoNos · · Score: 1

      Extending range? Simple : remove the oxygen from the air.

      Actually, there are folks using it over 2.5 km (with expensiv antennas, and NOT through walls) :
      http://www.terabeam.com/solutions/whitepapers/bene fits-60ghz.php

      (I suspect that the 10m might actually be a feature to allow frequencies to be re-used)

      --
      I have discovered a truly remarkable proof for my post which this sig is too small to contain.
    2. Re:Range by lelitsch · · Score: 1

      60 GHz has one additional problem for longer ranges: Oxygen molecules have an absorption line rigth about there. So in addition to 1/r^2, you also get thermal degradation. But they can, of course go a bit up or down in wave length.

    3. Re:Range by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 2, Informative

      Range isn't a problem at all. This doesn't replace Ethernet; it replaces USB, FireWire, VGA, DVI, RCA, optical, and HDMI cables (and it'll probably be cheaper than those high-end cables anyway). The short range makes this frequency ideal for unlicensed use, because interference also has a short range, and your private transmissions are much less likely to be intercepted. Thus it's an ideal replacement for short data cables of all kinds. I look forward to the day my mouse, keyboard, monitor, and printer are connected wirelessly to my CPU, and I can install a new piece of home theater equipment by simply placing it near my existing setup and then selecting it from a menu. Now if only they could do something about those pesky power cords...

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    4. Re:Range by Mattsson · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Now if only they could do something about those pesky power cords..."

      Easy. Buy a few containers of surplus batteries cheap. ^_^

      Seriously, though, it should be possible to create a open standard em-charge desk-cover that would power anything you put on it, like monitor, mouse, keyboard, printer, mobilephone, portable harddrive, etc.
      Not exactly cordless, but at least it's only one cord for everything ontop of the desk.
      There already exist such pads, but they are proprietary and small.

      --
      /.Mattsson - My native language is not English, so please don't whine over linguistic errors. (That's lame anyway...)
  9. Re:This is going to change the future... by Douglas+Simmons · · Score: 2, Funny

    Of porn, actually.
    You must be new here.

  10. Sounds like IBM has solved the problem of cables by Maximalist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Even if this is a short range technology, it sounds like it could do away with just about every cable connection going into the back of my desktop box except the power cord. Let it be super Bluetooth... that would be great!

  11. Heat and power consumption? by darealpat · · Score: 1

    Any idea about how hot these things will be in a typical notebook? That will be an issue as well as their power consumption over time, especially during a boring 3 hour lecture, or when outside downloading a torrent.

    --
    For every present, there is a past
  12. Ten Times Faster Than Present Technology!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, I just got back from MegaComputerStore and they had all these NetGear Pre N and MIMO wireless gadgets. The boxes of this kit promised speeds up to 108Mbps and upto 1,000% increase in coverage.

    That's pretty FAST! So, is this new IBM Magic going to allow 1Gbps (108Mbps X 10) wireless speeds? What sort of range?

    Is this just marketing BS?

    1. Re:Ten Times Faster Than Present Technology!!! by Penguinoflight · · Score: 0, Troll

      The claims for those speeds in wireless are just plain wrong. If we get lucky IBM will double current performance at reasonable distances.

      --
      "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
      1 John 4:14
  13. BlueTooth V3.0 by Rac3r5 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Seems like an improvement on blueTooth. I think this tech has a lot of potential. I suspect the small range is due to the fact that the antenna is embedded onto the chip. Maybe hooking up a booster antenna might help amplify the signal further.

    1. Re:BlueTooth V3.0 by SaDan · · Score: 1

      The antenna is probably so small you wouldn't bother with an external/"booster" antenna.

  14. Frequency allocation. by gositz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Only a part of the spectrum mentioned in the article (from 30-300 GHz) is 'unlicensed', and it is all 'allocated' to some use. A very informative chart can be found at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf The bottom row shows the allocation of frequency space from 30-300 GHz. Dense to say the least.

    1. Re:Frequency allocation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been looking for this, on fcc.gov...

  15. 630 Mbps @ 10M. by WindBourne · · Score: 1
    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:630 Mbps @ 10M. by psycho8me · · Score: 1

      It was designed of inter-satellite communication because at that frequency(60ghz) the waves are absorbed by oxygen.

  16. This is an alternate-format ultrawideband (UWB) by writertype · · Score: 1
    From the ExtremeTech article:

    "IBM researchers said Monday that they have created a low-power chipset that will compete with ultrawideband technology, offering data rates at around 630 Mbits/s.

    "The chipset conforms to the IEEE 802.15.3c specification, which IBM refers to as "millimeter wave" or "mmWave" technology, according to Brian Gaucher, a research manager with IBM Research. "

    The bit where it talks about how the 630-Mbits was the limits of their test equipment was cool...

  17. IBM != Lenovo by nurb432 · · Score: 3, Informative

    IBM just sold off the produciton and distribution of desktops and thinkpads to china.. They didnt sell off the research department, or 'PC server' production, or 'big iron'. ( unless they did this recently and didnt tell the rest of us ).

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  18. Geez by homer_ca · · Score: 1

    If you don't want 540Mb/s just keep your old router. It's not like 60GHz is going to interfere with your 2.4GHz signal.

  19. Re:Sounds like IBM has solved the problem of cable by cnettel · · Score: 1

    Not the monitor, unless you plan to place the video codec within that one. (Surely a dream for the media companies...)

  20. Re:630 Mbps @ 10M for Intra-Sat Comms by squidguy · · Score: 1

    Why bother using this for intra-sat comms when you have intra-sat masers/lasers doing the same thing (and carrying much more data)? Perhaps there is a cost savings for systems not requiring the higher data rates... this is presumably an omnidirectional transmitter, or at least wide spot-beam, so the challenges of laser aiming would be negated.

  21. This will be line of sight only by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At 300GHz, you have to have line of sight between transmitter and receiver. The wavelength is only 1mm, and you're not going to diffract around anything bigger than a broom handle. This will work more like an IR link.

    1. Re:This will be line of sight only by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 1

      I think the range is somewhere between 30 and 300 GHZ. I don't know how well 30 GHZ signals bend, though.

      --
      Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
  22. O2 absorption by chihowa · · Score: 4, Informative
    Molecular oxygen is paramagnetic. It's explained by the permanent magnetic moment caused by the two unpaired electrons.

    Quoth JH Van Vleck: "Even though electrically non-polar, oxygen gas absorbs microwaves because the magnetic moment of the O2 molecule interacts with electromagnetic fields." The Absorption of Microwaves by Oxygen

    So molecular oxygen is an exception to the generally true assumption that a molecule needs to be polar to absorb EM radiation.

    --
    If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    1. Re:O2 absorption by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Link needs login, here's another:
      http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v71/i7/p413_1

  23. The big question - RANGE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what is the range? if it is 50 feet, I don't want it.
    We want at least 10 miles to 100 miles range.

  24. It actually wouldn't be that bad... by Belial6 · · Score: 1

    You know, even if it was only 5m of actaul usage, it wouldn't be so bad. if the tech is cheap, you just poke the antena through the ceiling, and you don't have to worry about any other wires. Most businesses have hanging ceilings, and most homes have attics. It sure would make the wiring easier. Plus with those speeds, you could have multiple devices in a room, and still have reasonable speed.

  25. Re:Sounds like IBM has solved the problem of cable by MarkChovain · · Score: 0

    I have one cable provider, one telco providing DSL, and I will throw in, completely free of solidified gunk, you'll generate a decent amount of upload and download traffic. That in itself is enough to be upgraded to 10) with 40GB cap which is part of the bone head solutions for avoiding dealing with ISPs, obfuscation is some neon riced-out rollerskate with a thin coating of copper.

  26. Re:This is going to change the future... by geofferensis · · Score: 1

    Of pirate porn!

    Ewwwww. There are things a peg leg was just not meant to be used for.

  27. here's some info on silicon-germanium alloy (SiGe) by 5plicer · · Score: 1
    --
    The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
  28. IBM at SCALE 4x by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IBM will be exhibiting at SCALE 4x. To check them out for free on the exhibit hall floor use the promo code "FREE" for a free exhibit hall only pass.

    For a discounted full access pass use the promo code: "NEWSP"

  29. Eh? by TallMatthew · · Score: 1
    Using the IBM-pioneered chip-making technology called silicon germanium

    That's a pretty flowery description.