Chip designer, Alereon Inc has unveiled its first chip named AL5100 which uses frequency band that is legal all over the world for wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB), a technology with the potential that cuts the tangle of cables surrounding computers.
USB cables connect computers with mice, keyboards, printers, cameras and external hard-drives. The new chip, AL5100 will connect to computers with optional wireless add-in cards, or dongles that go onto USB port.
The underlying radio technology is called Ultra-Wideband (UWB), and uses frequencies, which is usually employed for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile phones and other wireless technologies. It is relatively virgin territory in the airwaves, and exploits high data transfer rates with low power consumption at the price of range, the signal hardly goes further than 10m.
Alereon spokesman Mike Krell said,
The Austin, Texas-based company’s first UWB chipset, the AL4000, to reach the consumer market in a month or two in wireless USB hubs, to which peripherals can be connected with standard USB cables. The hub itself communicates wirelessly to a dongle on the computer.
Image Credit: Alereon & Linux Devices
Via: Taipei Times
