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The prospect of a unified standard for the 60GHz band, which is emerging as a key area for high speed in-home media networks, has improved significantly. One of the leading industry bodies seeking to set the 60GHz standard, the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) has come to an agreement with the Wi-Fi Alliance, ending the danger of a split in the Wi-Fi camp. WiGig has also lured SiBeam, the key silicon start-up behind rival effort WirelessHD, to create chips for its own platform too. However, WirelessHD recently leapfrogged WiGig with the latest release of its would-be standard.

The real momentum is now clearly behind WiGig though. Though the last of the various 60GHz bodies to emerge, the Alliance has always been well supported, as it evolved out of Wi-Fi efforts and so has the WLan giants, such as Intel and Broadcom, in its camp. Its spec was written as an extension to the IEEE 802.11 standard, though until now it had failed to create formal links to the Wi-Fi Alliance or the IEEE's 802.11ad group, which is responsible for the early stages of setting a formal 60GHz standard. That had raised the specter of a split between WiGig and another IEEE effort, 802.15.3c (also supporting SiBeam) - the sort of feud that wrecked IEEE efforts to create a high speed UltraWideBand-based standard some years ago. Although the ad group is still accepting proposals, it seems highly likely it will go with WiGig.

Now it is likely that the body will support a single 60GHz effort, and SiBeam offered further hope that this might become a unified initiative. The start-up is the main silicon provider behind the WirelessHD Consortium, which has heavy backing from the consumer electronics business, but will now also deliver silicon for WiGig, and more significantly, design a hybrid chip supporting both specs. This will not only bring hopes of a harmonized platform, but also SiBeam's experience and advanced technology. The latest version of WirelessHD promises throughput of 10Gbps to 28Gbps, according to EETimes, leapfrogging WiGig's 7Gbps.

SiBeam is one of 14 new members of WiGigA lliance, with Cisco also an important new supporter. The firm is broadening its focus, aware that the market for 60GHz in-home networks is immature and liable to be dominated by big name silicon vendors in future. It is positioning itself as an expert in all the so-called millimetre wave bands from 60GHz upwards, and is considering moves into the 77GHz space, mainly likely to be used for the automotive sector. Its short term priority is to span the two main 60GHz camps with a focus on local area networking between WirelessHD and WiGig.

"We believe WirelessHD is ideal for video streaming because it was built that way, but we also see opportunities with WiGig in a Lan application that could be interesting," CEO John LeMoncheck told EETimes. Its hybrid RF transceiver, the SB8110, will be available in June, the first commercial silicon for WiGig. However, it is not yet supporting existing Wi-Fi technologies, while other firms will introduce triple-band radios for 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 60GHz Wi-Fi.

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