The Wi-Fi Alliance is working on a new specification that will let computing  devices interconnect with mobile phones, cameras, printers, keyboards and mice, and other PCs over Wi-Fi connections. Called Wi-Fi Direct, the new specification promises to make it far easier for devices to share, display and print information.
Previously code-named "Wi-Fi peer-to-peer," the fledgling technology will enable devices to make a one-to-one connection, or enable a group of several devices to connect simultaneously. Slated to be added to Wi-Fi chips beginning in the second half of 2010, the technology also will be able to create connections with the hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi legacy devices already in use, according to Wi-Fi Alliance Executive Director Edgar Figueroa.
"Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices -- even when a Wi-Fi access point isn't available," Figueroa said. "The impact is that Wi-Fi will become even more pervasive and useful for consumers and across the enterprise ."
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But device makers don't need to wait until next year to offer Wi-Fi peer-to-peer capabilities. Atheros Communications, which first demonstrated its peer-to-peer Wi-Fi technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008, is already shipping a similar technology for integration into mobile products.
Called Atheros Direct Connect, the company's technology is designed to work with any legacy Wi-Fi device. Moreover, Direct Connect is expected to be forward-compatible with Wi-Fi Direct, which will feature enhancements for power management and device discovery.
Atheros began shipping Direct Connect technology "in the second half of 2009 with Atheros' XSPAN and Align 11n chips for Microsoft Windows 7-enabled netbook, notebook and desktop PCs," a company spokesperson said. "Regarding the mobile market, the products that are shipping with this capability today include the NEC N-06A smartphone and the Huawei iMo."
Given the wireless overlap between Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth -- which is for cars and headsets with some special markets in between -- the possibility exists that the two technologies will end up dueling for many of the same customers. Still, for Wi-Fi Direct to eat up a significant amount of Bluetooth's customer base, designers would have to accept a new technology that is probably not all that much better than what exists today, said Gartner Vice President Stan Bruederle. (continued...)
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