2004 Wireless RECAP
Thanks for the opportunity to shine some light on noteworthy technology. As you will see, my thoughts for 2004 focus on the wireless sector and how RF (radio frequency) helps to spatially and temporally increase the resolution by which we measure, monitor and analyze the world we live in. In other words, wireless is delivering profound changes to improve our lifestyle.
The technological prowess of the United States was shown to the world via wireless transmission while reinforcing our great passion for exploration. The reconnaissance mission to Mars by the probes Spirit and Opportunity used long range wireless transmission and gave space travel an extreme make-over. It was the best of reality TV, quenching our thirst to learn if tales of Martian life have any scientific basis. How exciting to see wireless feed the public's imagination and watch this technology deliver images showing the beauty of the Martian landscape over 34 million miles away. No other communications technology could rival wireless’ ability to deliver these images. In one second a radio wave travels seven times around the world. This means our round trip wireless communications to Mars took our speedy radio wave over 6 minutes. That is amazing!
Back at home, Mesh Networks Inc. gave us a different kind of reconnaissance. Their self configuring "meshing" networks create high-speed wireless communication systems; great technology for un-tethered applications requiring reliable ad-hoc information transfer. Until recently, this was a difficult technical challenge since dynamic network access points typically have unreliable wireless links to their peers. Expensive infrastructure was needed to overcome this limitation and offer sufficient link margin for adequate coverage footprints with acceptable bit error rates for reliable communications. By relaying data via neighboring nodes you reduce link infrastructure, speed deployment, and offer a system that is resilient to failure. This technology is creating systems to enable real time tracking of firefighters, a great example of how wireless increases the efficiency and monitoring of scarce resources. Public safety will receive a dramatic benefit while the risks for our heroes will be reduced.
New innovations from Tropos Networks Inc. are helping WiFi offer superior use cases while increasing access hot spots within a metropolitan coverage area. At the heart of their advance is the Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP). Its job is to route traffic wirelessly, eliminating a majority of the fixed backbone hardware associated with WiFi access point solutions. Imagine smart WiFi cells which dynamically route traffic via the optimum throughput paths. This minimizes RF adjacent channel and co-channel interference, which in turn, increases capacity and improves mean time between failure by eliminating backbone hardware and access point problems. Look for an even stronger presence of the WiFi network as a result of PWRP. At a minimum, this progresses the quest of delivering Internet access anywhere, anytime via WiFi.
Alien Technologies builds their third generation RFID production line. Capacity increases over pick and place machines are impressive. It is capable of increasing yields of a silicon wafer from 15,000 dies to over 200,000 nanoblocks. The patented Fluidic Self Assembly process used by Alien yields a significant increase in IC output. Pick and place machines are capable of 10,000 IC’s per hour, therefore, it takes one machine over 11 years to make a billion IC’s. The Alien proprietary system reduces the process to less than 3 weeks. With demand estimates of 550 billion RFID tags per year this is an important increase in capacity. RFID is reinventing the supply chain and offering business a new paradigm known as the real time enterprise. Look for huge capital flows into this sector as businesses re-tool to meet RFID mandates from Wal-Mart and the DOD.
Another great development is taking wireless down to the micron level and using it for communications within integrated circuits. Sun Microsystems is leading this innovation by applying wireless data transfer amongst neighboring integrated circuits separated by less then a hair width apart. Sun thinks this technology may yield a 100 fold improvement in computing speed. Perhaps this will generate the greatest impact for the future mainly because it will add a new dimension to Moore's law. Not only will we be increasing the number of transistors on an integrated circuit every couple of years, we will also be bumping up the speed limit for internal communications. This has the profound potential to accelerate IC capability while lowering their cost basis. If wireless intra-IC communications become viable then wireless may be the legitimate heir of the most profound improvement in electronics since Jack Kilby’s invention of the integrated circuit in 1958.
Finally, we must make honorable mention of the life saving benefits of wireless communications during times of crisis. In particular, I'm thinking of Florida. This state survived the costliest Hurricane season ever recorded while giving us many examples of how wireless phones not only improve productivity but keep people from harms way. Wireless is a great life line!
I hope you enjoyed the niche technologies that I have highlighted. Happy holidays to you and the ones you love.
Bye for now,
Harold Clampitt
The technological prowess of the United States was shown to the world via wireless transmission while reinforcing our great passion for exploration. The reconnaissance mission to Mars by the probes Spirit and Opportunity used long range wireless transmission and gave space travel an extreme make-over. It was the best of reality TV, quenching our thirst to learn if tales of Martian life have any scientific basis. How exciting to see wireless feed the public's imagination and watch this technology deliver images showing the beauty of the Martian landscape over 34 million miles away. No other communications technology could rival wireless’ ability to deliver these images. In one second a radio wave travels seven times around the world. This means our round trip wireless communications to Mars took our speedy radio wave over 6 minutes. That is amazing!
Back at home, Mesh Networks Inc. gave us a different kind of reconnaissance. Their self configuring "meshing" networks create high-speed wireless communication systems; great technology for un-tethered applications requiring reliable ad-hoc information transfer. Until recently, this was a difficult technical challenge since dynamic network access points typically have unreliable wireless links to their peers. Expensive infrastructure was needed to overcome this limitation and offer sufficient link margin for adequate coverage footprints with acceptable bit error rates for reliable communications. By relaying data via neighboring nodes you reduce link infrastructure, speed deployment, and offer a system that is resilient to failure. This technology is creating systems to enable real time tracking of firefighters, a great example of how wireless increases the efficiency and monitoring of scarce resources. Public safety will receive a dramatic benefit while the risks for our heroes will be reduced.
New innovations from Tropos Networks Inc. are helping WiFi offer superior use cases while increasing access hot spots within a metropolitan coverage area. At the heart of their advance is the Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP). Its job is to route traffic wirelessly, eliminating a majority of the fixed backbone hardware associated with WiFi access point solutions. Imagine smart WiFi cells which dynamically route traffic via the optimum throughput paths. This minimizes RF adjacent channel and co-channel interference, which in turn, increases capacity and improves mean time between failure by eliminating backbone hardware and access point problems. Look for an even stronger presence of the WiFi network as a result of PWRP. At a minimum, this progresses the quest of delivering Internet access anywhere, anytime via WiFi.
Alien Technologies builds their third generation RFID production line. Capacity increases over pick and place machines are impressive. It is capable of increasing yields of a silicon wafer from 15,000 dies to over 200,000 nanoblocks. The patented Fluidic Self Assembly process used by Alien yields a significant increase in IC output. Pick and place machines are capable of 10,000 IC’s per hour, therefore, it takes one machine over 11 years to make a billion IC’s. The Alien proprietary system reduces the process to less than 3 weeks. With demand estimates of 550 billion RFID tags per year this is an important increase in capacity. RFID is reinventing the supply chain and offering business a new paradigm known as the real time enterprise. Look for huge capital flows into this sector as businesses re-tool to meet RFID mandates from Wal-Mart and the DOD.
Another great development is taking wireless down to the micron level and using it for communications within integrated circuits. Sun Microsystems is leading this innovation by applying wireless data transfer amongst neighboring integrated circuits separated by less then a hair width apart. Sun thinks this technology may yield a 100 fold improvement in computing speed. Perhaps this will generate the greatest impact for the future mainly because it will add a new dimension to Moore's law. Not only will we be increasing the number of transistors on an integrated circuit every couple of years, we will also be bumping up the speed limit for internal communications. This has the profound potential to accelerate IC capability while lowering their cost basis. If wireless intra-IC communications become viable then wireless may be the legitimate heir of the most profound improvement in electronics since Jack Kilby’s invention of the integrated circuit in 1958.
Finally, we must make honorable mention of the life saving benefits of wireless communications during times of crisis. In particular, I'm thinking of Florida. This state survived the costliest Hurricane season ever recorded while giving us many examples of how wireless phones not only improve productivity but keep people from harms way. Wireless is a great life line!
I hope you enjoyed the niche technologies that I have highlighted. Happy holidays to you and the ones you love.
Bye for now,
Harold Clampitt
posted by Harold Clampitt at 2:25 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Harold:
Just a quick note to thank you for the pizzas! They were fantastic and shared with the family!
On a business note, I enjoy your website and getting a perspective on the industry!
I hope 2005 is a blessed and prosperous year for you!
Mike Allen
Alien Technology
Hola!
I'm currently researching RFID Engineering executives and found your site... Thank you for all the excellent information!
Olga Ocon
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