New SiBEAM Chipset Could TurboCharge Wireless HD Video
SiBeam has brought out a new chip that supports both WirelessHD and the WiGig standard. SiBeam’s WirelessHD chips that operate at 60GHz, have been shipping since 2008. It is the new version that has hardware onboard to support both specifications. The new chip is called SB8110 and the accompanying development kit is called SK8100.
The Sb8110 RF transceiver from SiBeam will thus be able to switch between WirelessHD and WiGig as and when necessary. Both standards are designed to transmit HD video wirelessly over s short distance, to enable homes to have wireless HD setups. These standards are intended mainly indoor use and have not found any other use as of yet. After incorporating WiGig, SiBeam has only to incoporate Amimon’s WHDI standard to make their chip the complete solution for any Wireless HD streaming capable device.
SiBeam’s CEO, John LeMoncheck, said that the company regards three areas as key in the wireless applications — WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network, as in WiFi), WPAN (Wirless Personal Area Network, as in Bluetooth) and WVAN (Wireless Video Area Network). The last one is where the company thinks WirelessHD will be the perfect solution. So why incorporate some other standard? Well, they believe that even tough WirelessHD is the perfect solution, WiGig can shine in other applications, presumably for the bandwidth (7Gbps).
The dual chip also enables device manufacturers to choose between either or both standards for their devices, all the while using the same chip. This has some logistical advantages in large scale manufacturing. With the SB8100, manufacturers can make their device support only WiGig or WirelessHD or both. In some cases, they might want to hold off the support till a new version is released and then switch it on remotely.
The SB100 chip is available right now and the SK81oo development kit is coming later this year in Jun.
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Date: May 18, 2010
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