Qualcomm has acquired Wilocity, a start-up specializing in 60 GHz wireless chipsets based on the IEEE 802.11ad standard, also known as WiGig technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Qualcomm is launching a family of tri-band platforms that combine Qualcomm Atheros’ Wi-Fi and WiGig solutions to significantly increase performance and enable cutting-edge wireless applications. The initial tri-band platform is a reference design based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, which is the world’s first mobile platform designed to support WiGig to enable applications such as 4k video streaming, peer-to-peer content sharing, networking, wireless docking, and backing up entire media libraries in seconds.
Qualcomm said WiGig technology brings multi-gigabit speeds for next gen mobile applications and allows for greater cellular network offload. 802.11ad also extends the Qualcomm VIVE portfolio, and builds on the company’s recent initiatives to revolutionize Wi-Fi networks with11ac 2.0 solutions with MU-MIMO. Tri-band Wi-Fi solutions from Qualcomm Atheros integrate the multi-gigabit performance of 802.11ad operating in the 60 GHz spectrum band along with 802.11ac that operates in the 5 GHz band and 802.11b/g/n in the 2.4 GHz band. In combination, 11ad and 11ac create the most powerful and efficient wireless solution in the market; coupling the whole home coverage of 11ac with the in-area multi-gigabit connectivity of 11ad will provide users with a superior connected experience.
“Qualcomm is continually innovating and investing in leadership technologies to drive value for our customers while creating new growth opportunities for our mobile, computing and networking platforms. WiGig will play an important role in Qualcomm’s strategy to address consumers’ increasingly sophisticated smartphone, tablet and computing requirements to support applications—such as immediate streaming of 4K video and high throughput peer-to-peer communication to enable the next generation of social interactions between users sharing content,” said Amir Faintuch, president, Qualcomm Atheros.
Qualcomm Atheros has been an investor in Wilocity since 2008 and worked closely with Wilocity to develop and distribute tri-band solutions for the computing market since 2011.
http://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/tgad_update.htm
- The WiGig MAC and PHY Specification, version 1.1 supports data rates up to 7 Gbps — more than ten times faster than the highest 802.11n rate. The spec supplements and extends the 802.11 Media Access Control (MAC) layer and is backward compatible with the IEEE 802.11 standard.
- Wilocity is headed by Tal Tamir (co-founder and CEO), who prior to co-founding Wilocity in 2007, served as Director of Wireless Strategic Planning at Intel, leading the wireless initiatives for Intel’s Centrino mobile technology platform. Tal joined Intel from Conexant, where as General Manager he directed development for voiceband and broadband modem technologies.