Confirms purchase of 60GHz specialist Wilocity and announces integrated Snapdragon platform
The purchase has been discussed for a couple of months, but is now complete, giving Qualcomm significant technology and IPR in the 802.11ad standard, branded WiGig. Once a separate activity from WiFi, the WiGig Alliance was brought under the wing of the WiFi Alliance last year and the 60GHz platform is now positioned as complementary to the 802.11ac gigabit WiFi offering.
Qualcomm also unveiled a family of triband chipsets combining WiGig with dual-band WiFi, integrated with its Snapdragon 810 mobile system-on-chip. WiGig's initial commercial applications have been in the PC community, with backers like Intel and Dell deploying it as a high speed PC connectivity system. However, while this was a relatively simple way to prove the technology's multi-gigabit (up to 7Gbps), short distance capabilities, all the big names have had a far grander vision for 11ad - in enterprise and hotspot WiFi, where cells are getting ever-smaller to create density; and in supporting high end multimedia in smartphones.
With Qualcomm's solution, mobile devices will be able to transmit 4K video directly to larger screens from next year, says the firm, potentially replacing HDMI ports and other methods. The first WiGig handsets will appear in the second half of 2015, according to Cormac Conroy, VP of product management and engineering at Qualcomm Atheros, the firm's WiFi and multimode division. 4K video has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, four times that of 1920 x 1080 HD.
Qualcomm did not disclose the purchase price, though it is rumored to be about $300m, which sounds very reasonable, given this puts Qualcomm in the technology and patents vanguard for mobile WiGig, outwitting Intel - which has its own visions for the technology - into the bargain.