Wi-Fi Direct promises more convenient networking

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 15 October 2009 05:17

Your IT - Home IT

Atheros has welcomed the Alliance's announcement, claiming that the Atheros Direct Connect technology implemented in its current Wi-Fi chips is "fully future compatible" with Wi-Fi Direct.

"We enthusiastically support the Wi-Fi Alliance's new Wi-Fi Certified Wi-Fi Direct specification as we believe this capability will quickly become a 'must have' feature in Wi-Fi devices," said Andy Davidson, senior director of software engineering at Atheros.

Intel helped lead the Wi-Fi Alliance's development of Wi-Fi Direct, and has announced that it will incorporate the specification into its My WiFi Technology.

Marvell also announced its support for the forthcoming specification.

"Marvell is very pleased that the industry has taken this step forward towards standardising peer-to-peer connectivity between Wi-Fi enabled clients," said Partho Mishra, the company's vice president and general manager of its embedded and emerging business unit. "As the technology impacts all Wi-Fi enabled devices, we're excited at the broad impact and benefits it will have on consumers."

Low-power Wi-Fi specialist Ozmo Device joined the list of companies planning to support W-Fi Direct.

"With the upcoming certification, Wi-Fi Certified Wi-Fi Direct host systems such as PCs, smartphones and game consoles will be able to communicate directly with wireless peripherals such as mice and headsets," said Roel Peeters, vice president of marketing at Ozmo. "Ozmo's solution will leverage this timely standard to deliver substantial power and performance benefits over legacy technologies like Bluetooth."

Wi-Fi Alliance sponsor members include Texas Instruments, Motorola, Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Cisco and Apple. The regular membership list is a who's who of the wireless networking industry. Only Alliance members are able to use the Wi-Fi Certified label.