Hybrid WiGig-Wi-Fi Chip Planned by Atheros, Wilocity

Atheros and Wilocity, which signify the Wi-Fi and 60-GHz wireless HDMI camps, have granted to work mutually to widen hybrid "tri-band" chipsets.

The two companies could increase their first product samples by early 2011, and transport them later that year, said Tal Tamir, chief executive of Wilocity, in an interview.

To date, Wi-Fi and the wireless multimedia technologies such as WirelessHD, WiGig, and others have been in quasi-competition with one another, as both strive to be the home's key wireless network technology. The battleground has been the living room, with the ultimate exclusion of the HDMI cable that currently serves as the transport mechanism for encrypted multimedia data.

Although the WiGig technology claims to have ranges beyond ten meters, the technology still can't rather match the coverage of 802.11n, roughly 70 meters (230 feet) indoors. Likewise, even the 150-Mbit/s maximum throughput 802.11n allows can't compete with the 7-Gbits/s throughput the WiGig measurement defines.