Nokia has spawned a new name in short-range wireless networking which it hopes will have the same impact on the market that Bluetooth did five or so years ago.
Dubbed WiBree, the wireless comms technology has been designed by Nokia to connect mobile phones with PCs and other portable devices and as such is optimised for low power operation.
The short-range wireless technology will have a 0-10m range and a data rate of 1Mbit/s. It is expected to be implemented either in a stand-alone chip or as Bluetooth-WiBree dual-mode chip.
According to Dr. Bob Iannucci, head of Nokia Research Center: “Our aim is to establish an industry standard faster than ever before by offering an interoperable solution that can be commercialized and incorporated into products quickly."
The mobile phone firm is being supported by a group of semiconductor firms including Broadcom and CSR as it draws up the interoperability specification for the technology. The first commercial version of the specification will be available during second quarter of 2007, said Nokia.
WiBree support also includes Epson and Nordic Semiconductor, which have licensed the technology for commercial chip implementation. Suunto and Taiyo Yuden are also contributing to the interoperability specification.
According to CSR, WiBree is not competitive to Bluetooth nor will it be a general replacement for Bluetooth, and the UK Bluetooth chip supplier said it would “continue to increase its investment in the Bluetooth special interest group”.
Details of the WiBree forum are available here