Cutting the cord
By Amy Doan
forbes.com
Silicon Wave wants your PC to talk to your palmtop, your phone, your appliances and your car--and without any messy wires.
DAVID LYON'S VISION of the not-so-distant future looks like this:
• On your way to work, you check in by converting your car stereo to a speakerphone.
• You walk into your office and instantly update telephone numbers on your desktop PC without taking the palmtop out of your briefcase.
• As you step out of a meeting, your notebook computer automatically dials into the Internet via a cellular phone to synchronize your e-mail.
Lyon's San Diego-based startup, Silicon Wave, is making the first microchip systems for "Bluetooth," a promising wireless standard that uses short-range radio waves to connect cellular phones, PCs, projectors, organizers and other devices--minus the cords, the commands and the wait.
The technology is named after Harald, a 10th-century Danish king with a dead tooth who united warring factions. It represents the collaborative efforts of IBM, Intel, Toshiba, Nokia and Ericsson. They have signed away all patent rights to Bluetooth and offer the technology for free to any hardware or software company that wants it--and is willing likewise to give up patents.
More than 850 companies, from Boeing to Motorola to Saab, are planning Bluetooth products. Many are Lyon's potential customers. Silicon Wave expects to be among the first to market a cheap chip, combining a processor and a radio transceiver, that allows electronic devices to communicate.
The radio spits out continuous signals in the 2.4-gigahertz frequency band, sensed by a kindred electronic product when it comes within 30 feet. The two devices shake hands through the ether and pass data at a speed of 400 to 700 kilobits per second. Unlike the infrared connections in today's cordless mice and television remote controls, Bluetooth products don't need to be aimed directly at each other.
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Bluetooth devices aren't shy. They talk to each other without prompting.
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The Bluetooth communication chip might cost as little as $10 or $20 once Silicon Wave gets a certain volume of production. So says Lyon, 50, who has worked on chip and satellite technology since the 1960s. That's affordable--you could easily blow $10 on a printer cable.
But Bluetooth's appeal is in more than eliminating cables. It may free users from having to prompt communication between devices, explains Jeffrey Abramowitz, 3Com's director of wireless technology. One Bluetooth product would automatically link itself to any other within range. It would be like connecting to the Internet with a cable modem--you're always on.
The first few Bluetooth products should be available early next year. By 2002, predicts Philips Electronics, which is developing a Bluetooth line, there will be 600 million Bluetooth devices invisibly zapping data around.
But first a few hurdles to clear. The Federal Aviation Administration, squeamish at the prospect of all those radio signals bouncing around on board airplanes, has not approved the standard. The betting is that it will just issue specific restrictions as it does for cellular phones. Microsoft hasn't officially joined the Bluetooth bandwagon because it's reluctant to sign away intellectual property rights--which makes writing Bluetooth software for Windows and Windows CE onerous.
Another problem: There are competing standards in the works, like Home Radio Frequency, intended for refrigerators and other home appliances as well as computer gear. But Home RF gobbles up more power and is lagging behind Bluetooth.
Wireless analysts expect hardware standards to converge. From there the challenge is moving the technology from the office into the home--and then into your pocket. |
