Friday, November 8, 2002
Cypress Semiconductor Makes Alternative to Bluetooth?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 06:00 AM
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-964575.html
"Cypress Semiconductor is introducing a new technology that it says could leapfrog Bluetooth and other standards to create a standard for wirelessly linking peripherals such as mice and keyboards to a PC." They are calling it WirelessUSB. Anyone who has tried to get multiple bluetooth devices working together knows how frustrating it can be, and unless you are technically inclined, you are apt to give up. It can be as much fun as trying to get everything just right in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files was in the 80's.
The chips can be purchased for $3.92 in volume and no new drivers are needed for systems that already have USB support. Normally I am loathe to see another "standard" emerge that does essentially the same thing something else already does. You wind up with that perfect peripheral or PDA except it has the wrong standard in it. In this case though, I hope, if nothing else, it drives bluetooth makers to get their act together and deliver a plug-and-play interface to bluetooth that makes it as easy to connect devices as it is to plug an AC adapter into the wall. More information can be found at the Cypress web site.
"Cypress Semiconductor is introducing a new technology that it says could leapfrog Bluetooth and other standards to create a standard for wirelessly linking peripherals such as mice and keyboards to a PC." They are calling it WirelessUSB. Anyone who has tried to get multiple bluetooth devices working together knows how frustrating it can be, and unless you are technically inclined, you are apt to give up. It can be as much fun as trying to get everything just right in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files was in the 80's.
The chips can be purchased for $3.92 in volume and no new drivers are needed for systems that already have USB support. Normally I am loathe to see another "standard" emerge that does essentially the same thing something else already does. You wind up with that perfect peripheral or PDA except it has the wrong standard in it. In this case though, I hope, if nothing else, it drives bluetooth makers to get their act together and deliver a plug-and-play interface to bluetooth that makes it as easy to connect devices as it is to plug an AC adapter into the wall. More information can be found at the Cypress web site.
