IBM is testing a chip that will conform to a new IEEE standard for high-speed, short-range networking: This 630 Mbps product that they've tested in the lab conforms to 802.15.3c, a standard that most of us haven't been exposed to yet. Recently, the 802.15.3a group voted to disband; they focused on ultrawideband (UWB).
In the IEEE, every letter and number counts. The 802.15.3a group is Working Group 15 for personal area networking, Task Group 3a for high-data rate PHY (physical layer covering radio technology). This group was deadlocked between the WiMedia Alliance proposal led by Intel and Freescale's classic UWB technology.
Now Task Group 3c is a different story. Task Group 3 (802.15.3) defined a new MAC (framing data, error correction, and so on) along with a PHY that was regarded. The 3c task group builds on that MAC but focuses on millimeter-wave (mm-wave) microwave for extremely high rates. The draft standard is due by November, with a final version expected Sept. 2007, this article notes.
The IBM technology uses mm-wave in the unlicensed 60 GHz band (I honestly didn't know such a band existed until today) to communicate in this first draft at 630 Mbps over 10 meters. Some forms of UWB are nominally expected to deliver 480 Mbps at 10 meter, although some forms already available in sampling have higher rates. IBM thinks that 630 Mbps is just the beginning, and Task Group 3c is looking at rates that could exceed 2 Gbps.