Today, the Bluetooth SIG took a monumental step towards the future of Bluetooth technology by announcing its decision to work with WiMedia Alliance in order to further advance the capabilities of Bluetooth technology. The overall objective is to eventually integrate WiMedia's version of ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless technology with the current Bluetooth technology.
Bluetooth SIG officials have widely acknowledged their intention of working with other wireless technologies in order to improve the applications of Bluetooth technology. However, Bluetooth technology’s future and its overall direction for improvement have been somewhat cloudy and uncertain over the past several months. At times it appeared the Bluetooth SIG would take years before choosing a wireless partner. So, the decision to select WiMedia Alliance was not an easy task and the Bluetooth SIG has been in debate for months over whom to choose.
The SIG has selected WiMedia Alliance multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) as the base for a future high-speed version of Bluetooth. In a news conference today, Michael Foley, executive director of the SIG, announced the selection of MB-OFDM over the rival direct-sequence UWB version from the UWB Forum. The Wi-Media Alliance is supported by Intel Corp., while the UWB Forum is headed by Motorola Inc. spin-off Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
“After speaking with our members, we have heard overwhelmingly that Wi-Media was the version of the technology they wanted to see enabled within the Bluetooth spec,” Foley said. “There was not one thing in particular, it was a collection of features, or advantages, that made us choose.”
Today’s announcement will hopefully lead to future versions of Bluetooth technology, capable of transferring data over 100 times faster than current Bluetooth transmissions. Not only will the new versions be faster, but they will also retain lower power consumption for use in devices such as cell phones, mice and keyboards. Both the Bluetooth SIG and WiMedia Alliance have agreed to use the unlicensed radio spectrum above 6GHz for UWB-based Bluetooth. “We believe utilizing a higher band, in the 6-9GHz spectrum, will give us a much better opportunity of getting global regulatory acceptance,” Foley said.
If this news wasn’t big enough, there happens to be even more ground-breaking news in store for Bluetooth technology.
The global electronics industry and the world's largest electronics firms FINALLY decided which single wireless connection to use in the new generation of digital devices. Their choice is BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGY!!!
This is a huge step in the right direction for the advancement of the Bluetooth wireless standard. Now millions of televisions, personal computers, video recorders, and digital projectors are set to get a makeover, featuring the new version of Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth technology will allow these devices to wirelessly send high quality video between each other, in addition to offering various other applications.
Bluetooth SIG promoter member companies, Intel, Nokia, and Microsoft all say they will cooperate in an effort to have these new Bluetooth devices available for retail by 2008. The devices will be able to send and receive multimedia at speeds 100 times faster than current Bluetooth technology. As of now, the number of Bluetooth devices is projected to reach one billion units by the end of 2006.
By the 2nd quarter of 2007, examples of the new technology are expected to be available for prototyping and by 2008 we should be seeing these products on the market. Bluetooth technology is finally getting the recognition it ultimately deserves.Posted March 28, 2006 by BlueTomorrow.com Editorial Staff
| Comments |
|
