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October 10, 2007

Early UWB Hubs Too Expensive, Unreliable, AP Reports

By Glenn Fleishman

AP tech writer Peter Svensson says that Belkin’s worked, Iogear’s is flawed, neither is worth the cost: If you’re thinking about being an early ultrawideband (UWB) hub adopter, Svensson is more or less saying, is it worth $200 to replace a single cable? I tend to agree, although I’m glad some product is on the market. $200 for a USB 2.0 hub that requires AC power on one end and a Windows driver on the other seems a bit much. Svensson was able to get Belkin’s hub to work just fine and approved of the speed. Iogear’s suffered from flaws, though the company acknowledged this and promises revised drivers.

With the approval this week of 12 platform reference designs from major makers that conform to the WiMedia Alliance’s core specifications, expect that within 3 to 6 months we’ll see the “real” UWB: adapters designed to work with many different kinds of devices; the ability to pair equipment and mix and match adapters; and adapters built into some early, higher-end peripherals.

UWB can operate at rates of up 480 Mbps over a few feet, and will best work when and if UWB radios are built into cameras, printers, and hard drives as an alternative or supplement to wired USB 2.0; and when PCs are sold with UWB as a standard option (like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) or as a cheap upgrade.

Posted by Glennf at October 10, 2007 2:26 PM

Categories: UWB

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