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Arduino Yun weds Arduino, WiFi and Linux at Maker Faire 2013
The Arduino Robot wasn't the only interesting product the Italian company launched at Maker Faire this past weekend. Arduino Yún combines a Leonardo board (featuring Atmel's ATmega32u4) with a MIPS-based WiFi SoC (Atheros AR9331) running Limino (an OpenWRT / Linux derivative). It includes everything you'd expect from a Leonardo board plus WiFi, wired Ethernet, a USB host port and a microSD card slot. The Arduino side can be programmed wirelessly and communicates with the WiFi SoC via SPI and UART interfaces using the new Bridge Library, which delegates networking to the Linux side. Out of the box, the board behaves just like any standard WiFi access point with a full web interface -- it even allows SSH access. Arduino Yún is the first of a family of WiFI-enabled products and will be available late June for $69. Check out the gallery below for some closeup shots, and follow the source for more details. %Gallery-188774%
Killer Wireless-N 1202 and E2200 Ethernet controller launch, aim to squash your ping times
Killer Technology -- formerly known as Bigfoot Networks -- has certainly come a long way from its days as a scrappy startup, and now the outfit's taking one more step towards ping domination with the introduction of two new products. Qualcomm Atheros is actually doing the honors, as it formally reveals the Killer Wireless-N 1202 WiFi module with Bluetooth as well as the Killer E2200 gigabit Ethernet controller. Each one is aimed at DIYers and OEMs, enabling machines based on them to automatically classify and prioritizing gaming, video and audio network data -- a bit of behind-the-scenes black magic that's said to "provide a superior, uninterrupted online entertainment experience." As you'd expect, both will include the Killer Network Manager software on associated rigs, giving end users a borderline ridiculous amount of control over how bandwidth is used. We're told that the 1202 will ship next month, while the E2200 is available now; pricing remains a mystery on both, though.
Qualcomm unleashes tri-band WiFi and new mobile wireless chipset
Qualcomm might be all juiced up about getting its Snapdragon processor in 250 upcoming devices, but that doesn't mean the company has forgotten its wireless roots. The San Diego-based chip maker announced that its partnership with Wilocity has finally bore fruit in the form of the AR9004TB chipset. This tri-band wireless setup adds 60GHz WiGig to the usual 2.4 and 5GHz dual-band 802.11n formula for "multi-gigabit in-room performance." Though far from finalized, the 802.11ad standard being pushed by the WiGig alliance should be able to hit speeds of 5Gbps -- more than enough to blast several HD video streams around your home. It also packs Bluetooth 4.0 for your less bandwidth intensive (and more battery sensitive) computing needs. Going smaller scale, Qualcomm also unveiled the WCN3660, a wireless chipset to complement its Snapdragon CPU in smartphones and tablets. Inside this sliver of silicon is a dual-band Wi-Fi radio, Bluetooth 4.0, and an FM radio. It also supports Wi-Fi Display (not to be confused with WiDi) for beaming video to a WiFi-enabled TV or monitor. Head on after the break for more PR than you can shake an antenna at.
Mosaid gets into WiFi patent game, sues 17 companies including Dell, Canon, Asus, and RIM
Whether or not you agree with their tactics, lots of companies are finding it quite lucrative business to spend more time in the courts than in the research labs. CSIRO got some tasty settlements back in 2009, while just a few months ago Wi-LAN received "a significant amount" in a settlement from Intel. Now it's Mosaid's turn, a Kanata, Ontario-based company that bills itself as "one of the world's leading intellectual property (IP) companies, focused on the licensing and development of semiconductor and communications technologies." Indeed it just licensed some of those properties to LG on the 15th, but the very next day it filed suit against a 17 defendants for infringing on six of the company's patents, relating to network discovery, multiplexing, and other wireless techniques. Among those companies is RIM; which has its Torch, Style, Curve, Pearl, Bold, Storm handsets called out; and Asus, which has a long line of motherboards, routers, and other products said to be in jeopardy. As ever it's hard to draw the line between the patent trolls and the legitimately infringed, but that the lawsuit was filed in litigation-friendly Marshall, Texas doesn't leave us with a particularly good feeling.
Qualcomm snaps up Atheros for $3.1 billion
Qualcomm is one of the wireless industry's undisputed titans, but it's looking to shore up a few holes in its component offerings today with the planned purchase of Atheros Communications, a company that primarily specializes in WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS chipsets. Atheros isn't exactly a startup, either: at $45 a share, Qualcomm will be shelling out roughly $3.1 billion to complete the acquisition (assuming it passes all the usual bureaucratic hurdles) of a company that's got WiFi silicon in products spanning the range from phones to PCs and every fledgling category in between. The deal's expected to close in the first half of this year; follow the break for the full press release.
Atheros debuts first Bluetooth 4 / 802.11n system-in-package
You know Atheros, right? The company known for its various wireless networking products has just announced a little something called the AR6233. Billed as "the first SIP solution to support the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard," this system-in-package (that's what SIP stands for -- but you already knew that) sports the aforementioned Bluetooth radio, as well as 802.11n "with a near-zero impact on the battery life of portable devices." Sounds like just the thing for your handcrafted boutique cellphone startup! The architecture works with ARM or x86 processors, and is expected to be in volume production in Q2, 2011. PR after the break.
Samsung Galaxy S first smartphone to be Wi-Fi Direct certified
Samsung has generally been on the cutting edge when it comes to giving its smartphones the latest and greatest in terms of compatibility, with the Omnia being the first DivX certified handset in America this month two years ago. Now, it's looking to wrangle yet another first, with this one having the potential to be far more important. The outfit's hot-selling Galaxy S smartphone (GT-I9000) is now listed on the Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi Direct certification docket, and while we knew that a handful of Wi-Fi modules and chipsets were about to get green-lit, this marks the first actual device to join that crowd. As we mentioned before, any modern-era WiFi device is capable of becoming Direct certified (via a firmware update given that there's no hardware change in the protocol), but it seems as if Sammy is being Johnny-on-the-spot. We'll keep an ear to the ground regarding an actual update that brings this functionality to life, but for now, let's all cross our fingers and hope those other phone makers get their handsets in line, too.
Wi-Fi Direct certification begins today, device-to-device transmission starting soon
So, Bluetooth -- last fall didn't end up being as frightful as you had probably imagined, but this fall is bound to be different. Or so the Wi-Fi Alliance says. If you'll recall, Wi-Fi Direct promised to do what Bluetooth had been doing for years, but with far less fuss and on a protocol that's much more widespread. A solid year has come and gone, and we've heard nary a word from any company who plans on implementing it. Thankfully for us all, that changes today. Starting in mere moments, Wi-Fi Direct devices will begin the certification process, and while we couldn't extract exact product details or a release time frame for future wares on a media call regarding the announcement, we did get the impression that at least a few partners were trying to get Wi-Fi Direct wares onto shelves before Christmas. As for functionality, the claims are fairly impressive. In order to make a direct device-to-device connection over WiFi, just one of the two need to be Wi-Fi Direct certified. In other words, a Wi-Fi Direct printer can recognize and interface with your Latitude D410 laptop from 1999, as all Wi-Fi Direct certified devices have to be able to control the one-to-one relationship. The goal here is pretty simple -- it's to create a protected connection between two devices over WiFi with as little hassle as possible. Think Bluetooth, but using WiFi. We also learned that "most" products certified will also support "one-to-many" connections, enabling a Wi-Fi Direct laptop to be in contact with a printer, connected HDTV and a tablet simultaneously, with no router in-between at any point. We should also point out that while 802.11a/g/n is supported over 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, there's no requirement for Wi-Fi Direct products to support 802.11b, so legacy users may want to pay attention to that quirk. There's also no new hardware requirements here, so in theory, any existing WiFi chipset could be upgraded via firmware to handle Wi-Fi Direct -- whether or not that'll happen on a large scale was a question the Wi-Fi Alliance couldn't answer for us. Finally, they noted that the app ecosystem is likely to make this whole rollout a lot more interesting, particularly considering that Direct is simply a pipe that software can dictate as it sees fit. We'll be keeping a close eye on the developments here; we've waited way too long for this to blossom, but we're pretty jazzed about the possibilities. Head on past the break for a video overview of how Wi-Fi Direct works.
Atheros Hybrid system merges WiFi with powerline networking in one tidy bundle
Network routers are increasingly becoming our portals to the world, and the latest model from Atheros, the Hybrid Router, is making that doorway wider than ever. Naturally it supports 802.11 WiFi and Ethernet, just like any good bit of networking kit, but it also adds in HomePlug AV powerline networking. By just plugging the thing's AC adapter into the wall you're extending your network signal throughout your abode and, by plugging in one of the company's Ethernet or WiFi adapters, you can extend your access to places that even microwaves fear to tread. Atheros hasn't announced pricing for the Hybrid Router or either the wired or wireless powerline range extenders, but all are said to be shipping before the end of the year, so we'll all be finding out soon enough.
Atheros and Wilocity embrace 'tri-band' wireless wares, 60GHz wireless PCIe
The amount of dual-band products (you know, those that support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands) is slowly growing, but already a pair of companies are thinking about the next big thing: tri-band. Atheros and Wilocity have both been eying that 60GHz stuff that the WiGig Alliance is pushing around these days, and now they're announcing a collaboration to "build tri-band wireless solutions that combine the ubiquity and coverage of WiFi with the multi-gigabit performance of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance's 60GHz technology." The new gear would enable all sorts of backwards compatibility, and while there aren't too many details being shared just yet on exactly what kind of kit is in the pipeline, we do know of one particular tidbit. That tidbit, of course, is wireless PCI Express, or wPCIe. Developed by Wilocity, this black magic would essentially enable PCIe devices to be docked outside of the desktop and have their signals beamed to a receiver card within the desktop. Think external graphics, storage arrays, etc., all sans cabling. It's being reported that wPCIe can push data at up to 5Gbps, and if all goes to plan, the spec should scale easily to 7Gbps. Be sure to give the links below a visit for a deeper dive, and get ready to give that SFF machine you've often overlooked... well, another look.
Atheros brings 802.11n to cellphones with AR6003, is one antenna short of a pair
802.11n is a wonderful thing, providing 144Mbps bandwidth and reliable connections over impressive distances, but part of that wonder comes thanks to a reliance on dual antennas. Twice the antennas means twice the streams (MIMO, ya dig?), but Atheros has decided to ditch one for its new mobile-friendly AR6003 chip. It's a power-saving move called "one-stream 11n," and while we've seen it before that doesn't mean we have to like it. Atheros's solution provides a maximum throughput of 85Mbps, which is frankly nothing to shake a stick at, and despite that will suck down 20 percent less power than its earlier AR6002 802.11a/b/g chip. In other words, we'll rock it in our celly -- begrudgingly.
Atheros AR6002 makes NEC's N-06A dual-mode handset a WiFi access point
We've seen oodles of dual-mode handsets, but none quite like this. Rather than boasting two radios, two keyboards or two faces, NEC's N-06A -- which is gearing up to debut on NTT DoCoMo over in Japan -- actually has two purposes. Aside from making calls on the carrier's FOMA network, the phone can actually double as a wireless access point when AP Mode is enabled. The handset packs a cutting-edge Atheros AR6002 module, which enables handsets to operate in infrastructure mode, the primary wireless connectivity framework employed in access points, routers, laptops and other WLAN devices. In other words, your netbook (and seven other WiFi-enabled devices) can hop online via your handset, and it's far easier than the wacky tethering methods we deal with today. Other specs include an 8.1 megapixel camera, HSDPA / WLAN models and a miraculous 3.2-inch touchscreen with an 854 x 480 resolution. There's no mention of a price or ship date for the handset, but more than that, we're thirsty for details on when this chipset will be featured in a handset that's headed to US soil. Check the full release after the break.
Heavily-backed WiGig Alliance to stream everything over 60GHz
Yes folks, we're back to the drawing board. Again. With a litany of wireless technologies floundering about and struggling to find real traction in the market, a cadre of market powerhouses have joined up to take wireless streaming to the next level -- or so they say, anyway. The newly formed WiGig Alliance aims to use unlicensed 60GHz waves in order to stream just about anything you can think of: HD video, images, phone contacts, instant messages, audio, etc. This "unified" approach differs from most other alternatives, which generally pick one niche (1080p video, for instance) and stick to it. If the more than 15 technology firms have their collective druthers, the WiGig specification will find its way into everything from set-top-boxes to telephones to home stereos, ready and willing to stream to other WiGig-enabled devices at a moment's notice. The group consists of household names such as Microsoft, LG, Dell, Samsung, Marvell, Nokia, NEC, Intel and Broadcom (just to name a few), and when we spoke to executives about the announcement, they told us that plans were to have the specification available to member organizations in Q4 of this year. The sad part is that this likely means we won't see shipping products with the WiGig logo for another year after that -- if we're lucky. We can't argue that some stability would be nice in this volatile sector; after all, we've been waiting for promising products like Belkin's FlyWire to ship for well over a year. The execs we spoke with couldn't speak on behalf of the partner firms in terms of what WiGig products were looming on the horizon, but as we alluded to earlier, the playing field is wide open. Honestly, we'd love for this to take off and finally give high-bandwidth wireless applications the support it needs to flourish, but as we've seen over the past few years, the road ahead ain't an easy one to walk. The full release is after the break.
Bluetooth 3.0 + HS gets official, adds speed with 802.11
The rumors were true, and today's the day that the Bluetooth SIG gets official with the latest, greatest version of Bluetooth. Bluetooth 3.0 + HS, as it'll be called, promises to be markedly faster than prior iterations thanks to the reliance on 802.11, which is the same protocol used by WiFi modules, routers, etc. The new standard obviously catapults Bluetooth into a new dimension; rather than being good for nothing more than sending images from one phone to another or syncing a fitness module to a DAP, v3.0 is nimble enough to handle camcorder-to-HDTV, PC-to-PMP and UMPC-to-printer transfers. In fact, the inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides increased throughput of data transfers "at the approximate rate of 24Mbps." We had sit-downs with Mike Foley (executive director of the Bluetooth SIG) and Atheros CTO Bill McFarland in order to find out a few more details about plans for the protocol -- if you're eager to hear what they had to say, not to mention see a demonstration of BT 3.0 at work, follow us past the break.
Atheros lets open source devs in on the WiFi party
In a move that will undoubtedly increase its street cred among technophiles and tinkerers alike, Atheros announced that it's releasing the specs to allow open source drivers for its ATH5K and ATH9K chip families. The move comes after Atheros first released some open source drivers for newer 802.11n chipsets and now the company is finally opening up its HAL (hardware abstraction layer) to developers, even using Linux as the reference public code base. No word on when any of this stuff will be released, but rest assured, we'll be on the lookout for more info -- we're sure the hackers out there are champing at the bit.
Atheros offers up 802.11n Draft 2.0-spec XSPAN solutions
You'll probably recall Atheros' name from the rundown of Draft 2.0 802.11n gear mentioned just a week ago, but now the firm is getting official with its bundle of refreshed pre-N gear. The new AR9001 family of chipset solutions builds upon the existing XSPAN offerings, and is reportedly compliant with the latest IEEE draft of 802.11n. Primarily aiming for SMB and Enterprise markets, the outfit is doling out a number of AR9001AP access points / router SoCs that "integrate its 802.11n MAC / baseband and 400MHz Wireless Network Processor (WNPU) into a single chip." On the consumer front, the AR9001U sect presents the "world's first dual-band capable 802.11n USB chipset," and also includes the company's first 1x2 MIMO configuration. Unsurprisingly, pricing details on all these goodies are still up in the air, but Atheros claims that second-generation AR9001 items are currently sampling to customers and should hit " full volume production" in Q3 of this year.[Via PCWorld]
Simple, safe WPS WiFi security around the corner
Setting up a secure wireless network is no easy task, due in part to the array of confusing, conflicting, and sometimes even downright ineffectual (we're looking at you, WEP) solutions to the problem. Enter the WiFi Alliance's WiFi Protected Setup, or WPS, a program slated for release later this year that aims to ease the process of securing home users' wireless networks and is intended to play nice with any WiFi-enabled consumer electronic device (say, a DAP or a camera), as long as the device passes a mandatory lab test first. Tapping into the home user's "I don't care how it works, as long as it does" mentality, WPS will make secure connections as simple as pushing a button on the WiFi-enabled device and the router that it is connecting to, although a PIN-based method is also part of the specification. The new system is similar to Buffalo Technology's Airstation One-Touch Secure System, however, unlike AOSS, WPS is an entirely non-proprietary specification that will fit right into the heterogeneous world of WiFi. Lets just hope wireless chipset and consumer electronics manufacturers get behind WPS and show some love to the peeps that don't know their WEPs from their wallets.[Via The Register]
Toshiba releases business-minded Tecra A8 laptop
Toshiba has gone a bit "lappy happy" this week, announcing yet another 15.4-inch machine to join the two new notebooks and nine new configurations of current models that we spotted earlier. This time around, the company is targeting corporate IT buyers looking for durability on the cheap, playing up the new Tecra A8's suite of EasyGuard technology -- which features the same hard drive and keyboard protection, biometric security, and one-touch presentation button found in the consumer-level LifeSmart package. As far as specs go, you can choose from among a number of setups sporting either Celeron M or Core Duo processors, 512MB or 1GB of RAM, between 60GB and 100GB worth of storage, CD/DVD combo drive or DVD SuperMulti drive, and 802.11b/g WiFi from Atheros or 802.11a/b/g from Intel. Available immediately, these models range from $700 for the Celeron M config to $1,349 for a rig packing a T2400 CPU and that dual-layer burner.[Via Mobile Tech Review]
TRENDnet announces upcoming pre-n gear
All of the controversy, delays, and performance concerns surrounding the IEEE's notorious pre-802.11n wireless networking spec haven't deterred TRENDnet from being the latest to announce a new family of products based on the non-final version of the MIMO-powered, next-gen WiFi standard. As you'll recall, there's been no small amount of concern that pre-n gear won't play nicely with legacy 802.11a/b/g equipment, which is why TRENDnet goes it out of its way to stress the "good neighbor behavior" exhibited by its WPA and SPI-protected TEW-631BRP router and TEW-621PC PC card -- both of which use Atheros' XSPAN technology to supposedly ensure interoperability in mixed-network environments. TRENDnet promises real-world speeds of between 150Mbps and 180Mbps , which in theory should be enough to stream around a little HD content and download some torrents while you're chatting on your wireless VoIP handset about that great post you're reading on Engadget. Both new products, along with a $150 access point and a $100 PCI adapter, are scheduled to ship on July 25th, with the router priced at $130 and the card going for an even $100.