GlobespanVirata has come up with an upgrade to its 802.11g and 802.11a chips that it claims will boost network speeds to 140 Mbps: The company says the upgraded chips are compatible with standard 802.11g and 802.11a clients and won't cause interference with other networks. It's not clear how the chips achieve the higher data rates. Somehow the upgrade enables transfers of compressed audio and video at the higher rates but encrypted data doesn't get the higher throughput.
More companies are coming out with proprietary ways to boost throughput and that could be a recipe for trouble. We've already heard reports of interference from gear using an Atheros chip that boosts speeds. The more proprietary gear out there, the greater the likelihood of interoperability problems. Still, you can't really blame the vendors for wanting to come out with higher speed products and with the absence of standards, they don't have much choice but to do it on their own.