Silicon Wave and Intel are working together to develop a solution which minimises interference between 802.11b Wif-Fi and Bluetooth radios.

They plan to use Silicon Wave’s Bluetooth 1.1 compliant SiW1700 series chipset as the basis for integrating Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections within a single notebook PC. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth operate in the same 2.4 Ghz band and can impact each other’s performance. Most experts view them as complimentary technologies, with Wi-Fi offering increased bandwidth and wireless range against Bluetooth’s low power consumption and cost.

“Silicon Wave continues to lead and innovate in delivering pragmatic solutions that answer PC users’ demands for seamless and simultaneous operation of both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless technologies,” said Michael Yin, director of Bluetooth product marketing for Silicon Wave. “We are committed to providing real-world solutions for the interference issues in wireless PC platforms.” Ticky Thakkar, director of platform architecture for Intel’s Mobile Platform Group, added: “This joint effort will deliver solutions that support the coexistence of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless technologies. Our next generation wireless mobile computing platform will allow users to successfully use both technologies simultaneously.”

Insight

The industry is gradually accepting that, failing a huge and unexpected leap forward in battery technology, the world will need several local area wireless standards. The power requirements of 802.11b are just too great for true mobility. The solution will most likely be the integration of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi into the same device, with software to intelligently switch between the two radios and optimise power consumption. Mobilian is already commercialising a single-chip Bluetooth / Wi-Fi solution. This will be confined to laptops at first, but will become viable for handheld devices within 18 – 24 months.