Wireless strains at redefinition: Push for 802.11 RF, baseband interface spec roils IC makers

摘要

Burlingame, Calif. - A handful of companies have launched an effort to define a standard interface linking 802.11 wireless LAN baseband and RF chips, potentially redrawing the boundaries for how those chips are designed. Wireless LAN chip makers said the effort is poorly timed, given the unsettled state of 802.11 standards, and pulls against the trend to design baseband and RF components in tandem or to integrate them. The work comes at a time when 802.11 LANs form one of the rare bright spots in an otherwise depressed communications industry. As many as 20 makers of 802.11 chips are rushing devices to market as new classes of systems makers and service companies pursue fresh opportunities to deliver industrial-strength wireless LANs for businesses and arising army of public-access "hot spots."