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Wireless Networking Hardware

Bluetooth + WiFi + GSM = Wanda 130

Posted by timothy from the go-anywhere dept.
nackrm writes "CNN is reporting on the latest from Texas Instruments seen recently at the Cellular Telecommunication and Internet Association (CTIA) conference in New Orleans. They've managed to jam these three techs into one chip. Soon we'll be seeing the techie equivalent of a swiss army knife."
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Bluetooth + WiFi + GSM = Wanda More

Bluetooth + WiFi + GSM = Wanda

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  • Which ties in quite nicey with... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by djkitsch ( 576853 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:16PM (#5561715)
    I'm sure some of you have read this [wired.com] on Wired, regarding 'Dick Tracy' watches - this seems like something which might move us even closer to the reality :-)

  • Bluetooth (Score:4, Funny)

    by DJ FirBee ( 611681 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:18PM (#5561723) Journal
    I thought bluetooth had went the way of 100base VG, betamax, bernoulli drives, .sea compression, BeOS, 8 track, and SACD.

    Now that I hear this, I think, maybe this is just what the technology needs to become uber prevalent.

    HA HA I AM KIDDING !!!!

    It will still be a distant 47th to IR connectivity.
    • Except it doesnt depend on that line of site thing.

      • Re:Bluetooth (Score:5, Informative)

        by giberti ( 110903 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:24PM (#5561777) Homepage
        I recently bought a blue tooth phone and a Palm T with blue tooth and have been enjoying the freedom from AvantGo. It isn't fast like a desktop, but it gets the job done. Its also nice to keep my contacts/calendar in sync between the palm and phone so if I don't want to lug the palm around, I'm not lost.

        And line of site is a pain with IR.

    • Re:Bluetooth (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      you can't be serious...

      the essential difference between bluetooth and IR is that iR own't keep a connection if you don't keep perfectly still.

      IR has even failed on me due to my switching on or off my desk lamp...

    • I thought bluetooth had went the way of 100base VG, betamax, bernoulli drives, .sea compression, BeOS, 8 track, and SACD.

      You haven't been to Europe lately, have you?

      Al.
      • They're still using Bernoulli drives?
      • I lived in Holland all of last year.

        Did not see it there either. Although bluetooth was the last thing in my mind while living in A'dam.

        Still, my powerbook has IR today.
        • Did not see it there either

          That's because Bluetooth uses a special invisible ray we call "radio waves". These crazy things are even able to transmit information right through solid objects! Surely the wonders of science will never cease. ;-)
          • Could be cause it aint there as well.

            How many devices have IR and how many devices have Bluetooth ? It may change but for now the standard could so easily go the way of Betamax.

            Maybe in Germany .... perhaps if I scouted all around europe I could have found some bluetooth devices.

            Or perhaps you just like Bluetooth because you don't want to believe that you bought a lemon.

            • I see people using BT headsets every day on the way to work. Of the 20 people in my office, I'd guess 10-12 have BT enabled phones. I know 2 or 3 people who use BT to connect their PDAs to phones. The laptop I am typing this on (a work machine, not personal) has BT built in. Ericcson put BT in most of their phones now, as do Nokia. I could buy a BT card for my PDA, a USB BT dongle for my PC, etc.

              I can only assume you were too busy looking in one kind of window in A'dam to look in any other kind. Mind you,
    • I'm sitting here with my bluetooth-enabled laptop, pda, and phone, and you're telling me it's all obsolete now?!?!?

      Damnit!
    • It will still be a distant 47th to IR connectivity.

      Then I guess I'm weird - I use IR every day and am hoping to switch to bluetooth any time now...
    • I *hate* synching across IR. Say I'm stuck with a desktop system at work and am not allowed to bring my laptop from home (it happened at my last job). And for the love of Pete, don't jostle the table while I'm doing an IR synch!

      With bluetooth, I have my phone in my jacket pocket, the headset at hand, PDA around somewhere, and my laptop on my desk. All talking to each other, no muss, no fuss. Alternate work setup #1 puts me in a park (with good GPRS coverage), laptop on lap, phone in jacket pocket, head

  • sounds fishy to me (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:21PM (#5561755)
    well, it does.

  • Not one chip! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Wesley Felter ( 138342 ) <wesley@felter.org> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:22PM (#5561759) Homepage
    The submitter didn't even RTFA. WANDA [ti.com] (there's the link that the submitter was too lazy to give you) is at least 7 chips.

    • Re:Not one chip! (Score:3, Informative)

      by glenkim ( 412499 )
      Not quite. CNN says that it's all on one chipset. So CNN is also to blame for misreporting.
      • One chipset != one chip. The article is a little poorly written since it starts off talking about TI's single-chip cell phone announcement which is unrelated to WANDA but that's still no excuse.
      • "Chip" and "Chipset" are different words, and have different meanings. Chip = one physical package. Chipset = group of related (possibly interdependent) chips. Before you blame CNN learn to use a dictionary ;-)
  • What about GPRS? Is that part of the GSM Chipset? Also this article talks about Bluetooth and 802.11b "just don't like each other" I use both right on top of each other and have never had any trouble. Is the 2.4Ghz interference real or a myth?

  • Prediction (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kirun ( 658684 )
    We'll be seeing phones with this fitted... ooh... five minutes after everyone's bought a camera phone?
  • A combination Cellphone/PDA/Dildo. ... naw, I wouldn't buy one of those. Not even if it had a vibrate mode. Eww.
  • Bluetooth + WiFi + GSM = "a fish?"

    I knew we had fish genes in tomatoes, but now in silicon chips? What else could the codename possibly allude to? (wait...you know the movie right? for those of you who were too young, there's a classic 1988 movie "a fish called wanda" [colossus.net])

    Seriously, how are they coming up with those acronyms?

    Ok, you can get back to posting intelligent comments, now ;-p

  • Bluetooth and Wifi not playing nicely? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tupps ( 43964 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:25PM (#5561787) Homepage
    I noticed that in this article that the guys at TI were having problems getting Wifi and Bluetooth to play nicely with each other. Which is coincidently is what Apple stated as a problem they had in the dev of the 12 and 17 inch notebooks which have integrated bluetooth and wifi. I wonder if ti need seperate attenaes for Wifi and Bluetooth?

  • Anywhere access... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Justen ( 517232 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:27PM (#5561802) Homepage Journal
    I have been waiting for this for quite a while.

    The idea of "anywhere" access isn't new. Almost every wireless company has included it in their .com business plans at one point or another. But there has always been a reality that it just isn't all that realistic for a single protocol. That is, it isn't very cost-effective to utilize a wide-area terrestrial wireless network when you are sitting five feet from an wi-fi base station.

    I think that this card will bring mobile warriors a bit closer to the idea of truly affordable anywhere access.

    justen

  • Why GSM? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mrklin ( 608689 ) <ken...lin@@@gmail...com> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:27PM (#5561803)
    Seems like the technology is aimed toward wireless data so why GSM? Why not GPRS, 1xRTT, 3G, etc, instead?
    • Simple, there are wireless networks in other countries.

    • Re:Why GSM? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Czernobog ( 588687 )
      Simple. GSM is used almost everywhere in the world. It's the most widely available mode of celular telephony.
      Exceptions include Japan, South Korea and the US.
      Pretty much everyone else uses GSM.

      • GSM is widely available in the US from Voicestream/T-Mobile, Cingular and AT&T Wireless. It's not available in Japan, but that's just about the only country where it isn't. There are two GSM operators in South Korea, see http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_kr.sht ml.
    • These days "GSM" can include the various 'spin-off' technologies that define GSM Phase 2+, such as GPRS, EGPRS (EDGE), HSCSD, etc.

      In this case GPRS is also included within the GSM definition.

    • Re:Why GSM? (Score:2, Informative)

      by taweili ( 111177 )
      Because GSM is the most widely deploy standard in the world. What's in GPRS/1xRTT/3G? It's data!!! Expensive and low speed 2.5G/3G data. Combining WiFi with GSM, you get a 3G killer. Who needs to wait for 3G to realize while you can get WiFi data today in cheaper price and much higher bandwidth?

  • Interference? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by onthefenceman ( 640213 ) <szoepf@hotmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:29PM (#5561818)
    Does anyone know anymore about the antenna design on this chip? It seems to me that would be pretty difficult to engineer. The GSM is a secondary issue, but I know that Bluetooth and WiFi in close proximity can interfere with each other considering they're closer to the same frequency.

    • Re:Interference? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      BlueTooth and most WiFi both use the 2.4GHz unlicensed band, but Bluetooth frequency-hops whereas Wifi does a wide frequency spread. You'll get interference during those times when your BT hop sequence "lands" in your Wifi channel. This situation will improve with BT radio 1.2, which is capable of adapting its hop sequence to avoid frequency areas which are noisy.

  • Power requirements... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by craenor ( 623901 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:33PM (#5561848) Homepage
    Like to see what the power draw on this chip is. WiFi is a power hog. Something like this sounds like it would be pretty ideal for portable computers.

    *goes back to actually read the story now*

    Craenor
    • TI's 802.11b chip takes something like 30% less power than others, which should help.

      But I'm still not sure that means you can take it home for a weekend and still have power Monday morning.

  • Article at infoSync (Score:5, Informative)

    by cemysce ( 622241 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:33PM (#5561851)
    Here is another article [infosyncworld.com] about TI's WANDA.
  • This guy talks about TI cramming these three into "a single chipset" but then we hear that TI has crammed the functionality into one chip. Wouldn't the word chipset imply that there was more than one chip? Technically you can have a set with one element but what's the use of calling it a chipset if there is only one chip?
    • The new Sony Core processor that is to go into the PSX3 is called a "chipset" yet it is one chip with multiple cores and multiple functions such as graphics and broaband all on one chip.

      The white papers of all Motorola G4 processors refer to the G4 chip as a chipset due to the Altivec and Interger + cache implementations.

  • Bloody brilliant, but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mac Degger ( 576336 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @10:02PM (#5562016) Journal
    Now this is exactly the featurte set I wanted, but what do those idiots do? They put PocketPC on it. Sigh...guess I'll have to wait another couple of months for this kind of thing running PalmOS.
    But by that time, I'll want one with OLED or E-Ink :)

  • Accelent® Systems Designs New Tri-Wireless PDA (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Accelent® Systems Designs New Tri-Wireless PDA Concept Design For Texas Instruments As An Independent Omap(TM) Technology Center

    http://www.accelent.com/TMRG5.ASP?PAGE_ID=791

  • Single Chip BT is Good (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JakiChan ( 141719 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @10:51PM (#5562277)
    Ti coming out with a single-chip Bluetooth solution is a Good Thing. I remember seeing more than one article saying that if they squeeze Bluetooth onto a single chip it would drive prices down, which would hopefully lead to more BT enabled devices. The chips would be cheaper and it would be easier to put on a device.

    I hope that's the case. Just having my Powerbook talk to my T68 is handy...I'll get a headset eventually, and throw in a BT enable PDA and it's all good. In theory you could dial your phone from the PDA, speak on the headset, and never take the phone out of your pocket. And as nice as syncing my phone's phonebook with my PIM it will never be as nice as being able to dial from the PDA. Oh, and it would mean I could write an app to have my PDA notify me when my phone gets a page, since the SMS notification on the T68 is it's biggest flaw (at least to me).
  • With WiFi, the poor can take advantage of the many wealth-building opportunities provided by the Internet, ranging from multi-million dollar gifts from Nigeria to sure-thing casino accounts to free university diplomas.

  • The techie equivalent of a swiss army knife... (Score:3, Funny)

    by dcuny ( 613699 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @11:58PM (#5562625)
    Soon we'll be seeing the techie equivalent of a swiss army knife.
    Oh, you mean a sonic screwdriver [angelfire.com]?
  • Is a swiss army knife.
    Register [cashncarrion.co.uk]

  • It's not a Single Chipset (Score:5, Informative)

    by ceranta ( 86805 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @12:17AM (#5562709)
    Looking at the site and TI press releases it's clear that WANDA is a reference design for a Tri-Wireless platform, which includes GSM/GPRS, WiFi, Bluetooth. It uses the OMAP processor/dsp (one chip), Bluetooth single chip (one chip), WiFi single chip (one chip), and the Baseband/Radio (three chips).

    So, that's 6 ICs right there. Not a Single Chip, but a Single Chipset.

    Since there is integration across the board, there are less worries about spectrum bashing (esp with WiFi and Bluetooth) since they can allocate the spectrum efficiently and properly.

    And it's a Concept Design ... we all know how well concept designs work in real life.
  • Combining competing technologies is an unique salvo in your typical market share battles. Along similar lines, some high end DVD players now come with both SACD and DVD-Audio decoders.

    So the question is, will the average cellphone purchaser pay extra for the convenience, or do cost-sensitve buyers always end up tilting the market towards one technology?

    Now somebody needs to build a unified J2ME and BREW platform...
  • I'm just wondering how big the actual form factor for this would be. Personally I would like it to be at least down the CF size so that way I can put in in my Zaurus and have it work as a phone. However I get the horrible feeling the battery life will last about 5 minutes

    Rus
  • Maybe apple could make an airport deluxe that will integrate these things, I know the newer powerbooks have bluetooth built in, but it would be nice for people like me who don't have bluetooth included on their powerbook.
  • I have a very vivid image of Saddam sitting behind a Gates powered laptop that goes:

    "New hardware found: US Laser Guided Missile"

    And then asks for DirectMedia 8 to be able to get a live cam view

  • Linux Drivers (Score:1, Insightful)

    by molli123 ( 517528 )
    thinking about 22MBit Wireless Chips that are at least not currently supported, I don't see, why I should buy something like this if I can't use it using Linux, Micha !
  • lemme know when I can get a version that works with the TiG4's lame antenna and has OS X drivers...

    Yeah yeah, I could use my only pccard slot for a wifi board, but fragile protuberances are to be avoided, especially considering the abuse I inflict on laptops..

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