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View Full Version : UltraWideBand - wireless replacement for Firewire?

Philip Colmer
02-26-2004, 12:25 PM
Now I know that a lot of people get confused about wireless cable replacement technologies (i.e. Bluetooth) and whether or not Wi-Fi is better, but it does look as if UltraWideBand (UWB) is being designed to provide high speed cable replacement, i.e. for USB and potentially Firewire.

The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/35813.html) has an article about the latest news on UWB, including details of Motorola's chipset which includes a 1394 interface. Unless my timezone-addled brain is letting me down, that is Firewire, right?

So, the chipset currently has a physical 1394 interface but UWB is designed to run at 114Mbps with the option to reduce to 57Mbps for higher data integrity. That would certainly provide the throughput required to get DV off a camcorder and into a computer ... without a cable!

I have to say that the future prospect of fewer cables on my desk looks rosy indeed :D

--Philip
Jason Dunn
02-26-2004, 05:21 PM
Indeed, 57 Mbps is 7.13 MB/s, which is enough bandwidth to move full resolution video off a MiniDV camera, although just barely (I think). Now all we need are passive charging pads, the kind where you put the camera down on the pad and it recharges the battery, without needing any sort of cable. Ah, that would be blissfull... :D
Gary Sheynkman
02-26-2004, 05:27 PM
Indeed, 57 Mbps is 7.13 MB/s, which is enough bandwidth to move full resolution video off a MiniDV camera, although just barely (I think). Now all we need are passive charging pads, the kind where you put the camera down on the pad and it recharges the battery, without needing any sort of cable. Ah, that would be blissfull... :D

But the liberals will say that more wiresless devices will cause cancer!!! :lol:


I dont think passive charging will come into play for a long while. Things that a passively-charged often short circuit (go to www.wessalmon.com and see the article about his SPOT watch)
klinux
03-01-2004, 09:40 PM
But the liberals will say that more wiresless devices will cause cancer!!! :lol:

You man bad science. Not liberals!