Version 1.0 of the Wireless USB specification, which is being promoted as the successor to the USB data transfer method between
electronics devices, should be approved by mid-May, according to Intel.
The Wireless USB specification is for 480Mbps transfer speed over distances of about three meters and it will work at lower speeds up
to a distance of about 10 meters.
A candidate Version 1.0 specification was sent to the Wireless USB Promoter Group on April 1 for a 45 day review, said Jeff
Ravencraft, technology strategist for Intel's Communications Technology Lab, at a press event during the Intel Developer Forum (IDF)
Japan 2005, on Friday.
"The new news is...we'll have the specification finalized on or about May 15," he said.
Version 1.0 of any technology is a key specification that enables developers to start product design. The Wireless USB Promoter
Group, which is authorizing the specification, consists of Agere Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, NEC Electronics, Philips
Semiconductors, which is part of Koninklijke Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, and Intel.
Consumers can look forward to a handful of Wireless USB products appearing in shops in the U.S. by the end of this year, with many
more products following in the first half of 2006, Ravencraft said.
NEC Electronics expects to have its first products on sale in Japan during the first half of 2006, according to Yoshiyuki Tomoda, senior
manager at the company's PC Peripheral Systems Division.
Intel is planning to boost Wireless USB's transfer speed to 1Gbps before the end of the decade, said Brad Hosler, Wireless USB
architect at Intel's Communications Technology Lab.