Speed?

Come on, Jaq.... at least try and give us *some* information.

Please?

Pretty please?

Nah, forget it... I'll hit up a real Tech News site.

Optimal. average, define the criterion.

Its USB2.0 compliant, so 480Mbps is the stated max. Expect a bit less at optimal, with real world performance diminishing from there due to a number of factors - most notably distance.

Currently the low power implementation imposes these constraints - and an ~30 foot effective radius.
Like all wireless, it is used for convenience, not for performance optimization.

The speed varies inversely with distance.

Tool, to be honest, such applications as this will be limited. I think the real opportunities will be for high speed wireless transmission of streaming media in a setting such as a home theater - and not just trivial closely located HW devices where reliable and easily established hard wire connections are easily accomplished.

Heh...

To be honest, Home Theatre was my first reaction when I saw the headline. WiQuest is capable of 1Gbps, so I was hoping they'd fudged the "USB" specs a bit.

This ain't quite going to handle multiple units off of say, one wireless USB hub at normal USB speeds...(At least, not for streaming to multiple laptops in a large conference room, or to multiple laptops in a college classroom...etc)

I max out my wired USB constantly. IMO, they should have waited on this until USB3.0 and worked towards supporting that.

You have it the nail on the head!

UWB easily can support such sustained speeds. But it will be interesting to see what the USB implementation will support - as USB is - as you rightly mentioned! - notorious for its lack of priority tasking and for only a few devices maxing out its bandwidth resulting in starved devices and processes. And high bandwidth video and audio will quickly do this.

The fact is, UWB is a whiz bang technology that has been fighting regulatory approval and format wars for too long - and it will be interesting to see what USB will do with it.

My guess is that current technology wireless USB will be suitable for low level streaming and applications such as what BlueTooth is currently used for - not high capacity transfer.

Additionally, as speeds drop inversely proportional to the distance, the high transfer speeds will be limited to devices placed very close to the PC - limiting its usefulness.

Well at least we agree on something. ;)

IMO, this tech isn't going to be relevant until USB 3.0 hits the road.

Wireless USB utilizes UWB (ultra-wideband) technology!

Security? LOL! Yeah, try compromising it! Better yet, just try identifying any of the low power signal components in the noise floor! ...let alone determining the frequency hopping algorithms!

Its been the defacto secure national security communications technology standard for ~20+ years!

An amazing technology long overdue in the commercial space.

Beginning this fall, wireless USB should begin to become ubiquitous.

Nothing is completely secure given enough determination... [smiles]

Really?! :-O

Well then, you will just have to be extremely vigilant within the ~30 foot effective transmission radius.

Get a clue.

Why do I get the feeling that this admonition comes from a WEP or WiFi user? Of course, we could also ask if their data is AES encrypted, and if they currently employ multi-factor authentication, and SSH, and 802.11i-AES tied to an SSL router allowing granular acess control of resources, and any of the Tripwire variants to address even more prescient security issues, but why bother? Of course they aren't.

Yeah, but what about security?

Security is always crack/hackable.

10 years ago when WEP was introduced, it was hailed as perfectly secure.

Look at it now.

The newest generation will be no different and you're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

Gee whiz, really?

WEP...look at it now??? Hell, look at it then! It was a joke from the start with the misapplication of the RC4 cipher primitive - and correctly identified as such - as was the TKIP bandaid applied to the continued flawed use of the RC4 cipher primitive just so the manufacturers could try to salvage their investment with WPA! But that was known at the time too! Just ask Jesse Walker!

Yet how many here are using 802.11i-AES??? Or even know what it is , for that matter! Yeah, we care so much about security! LOL!

And if your data is AES encrypted, why is its access the limiting concern? So many questions of best practices and so few coherent answers...But then so many think just one technique or technology, as opposed to layered defenses, are sufficient and the answer. LOL!

UWB is not a new technology.
If only more here had a clue as to what it is, let alone its pedigree.

But then, I guess that most think that UWB technology is somehow new... we have been using the technology in Specwar apps for almost 20 years now - without compromise.

And whether it is secure is almost secondary to the other more fundamental best practices that those so concerned with security fail to use.

But then UWB should have been in the commercial sector sooner, and at higher energy levels!...had not the defense community fought its release!

So just out of curiosity, exactly how would you go about compromising UWB? I would love to hear this - heck I would love just to hear your understanding of UWB technology - ranging from applied concrete/solids imaging, radar, secure communications, as well as many other classified applications- just to name a few proven legacy applications...

I would be curious to know just how you would go about distinguishing the carriers amongst the noise floor. And given that you can accomplish that, how would you predict, in real time, the agile carrier distribution patterns? And if we toss in bursty communications where as the time interval shortens, the inversely related frequency bandwidth approaches infinity?....

If you have ANY clue as to anything to which I have alluded, this should be sufficient to pique your interest...as should the vehement protests made by the military against releasing this technology into the commercial sector under the guise of 'concern' regarding interference - which can indeed happen under high power application! Oops...yet another potential use!

We aren't dealing with a static steady state RF carrier anymore! Think orthogonal ultra low power spread spectrum technology existing literally in the noise floor on steroids...with an array of seemingly unrelated applications straight out of sci-fi movies.

"When introduced in 1999, WEP was intended to provide confidentiality comparable to that of a traditional wired network."

It wasn't found to be weak until 2001.

Regardless of whether or not it was insecure by design it was hailed as being as secure as a wired network. This new technology will suffer the same fate.

"Yet how many here are using 802.11i-AES??? Or even know what it is , for that matter! Yeah, we care so much about security! LOL!"

Me. Mind you it's wasted where I live considering I have only 1 neighbour.

"So just out of curiosity, exactly how would you go about compromising UWB?"

With no security implemented, what is stopping you (the 'hacker') from purchasing the same receiver equipment as is being used by the intended recipient?

Go do some research into Ultra wide-band technology...

And how many here still think USB and UWB are the same thing? LOL! Nevermind...why confuse folks more than they already are...

You are worried abut the USB security when the device has a MAX 30 FOOT range and yet you dismiss WEP security as you claim to have only one neighbor! LOL!

And also go back and familiarize yourself with the debates that dominated the IEEE hearing regarding the inception of WEP! There were no lack of objections to the standard - which were ALL born out when the technology began shipping!!! Hence your lag between approval and proof of performance (or the lack thereof!) Duh!

You obviously have no clue as to how UWB works and how handshaking is established. This is not a new technology, heretofore its use in communications has been limited to secure military applications! I would love to go into MUCH more detail, although I am not authorized to do so as so much of the technological capabilities are is still classified! But I can tell you that folks a "little" more skilled than you, and with far larger defense budgets have been trying to do exactly that - thus far without success.

But again, you sit and make your 'but everything can be broken' tautologies - ignoring the corollary 'in how much time and how easily' and think you have a clue. While you are at it, why not go argue that AES encryption is breakable too. How many years do you have to do that? And what will the decrypted message be worth, in say, 64 years?

Ignorance is bliss. Stick to your trite 'but everything is breakable" insight. So please - tell us how you will go about breaking UWB? And if you do it in a practical manner, please call me, I will love to act as your business manager.

D@mn it would be nice to have an actual discussion about a technology with someone who actually has a clue, instead of those who think cute remarks are a satisfactory substitute.

I tell ya... Difficult having a press event in NYC these days without Jaq sneaking in, noshing all your snacks and posting it on beta a few days after everybody else.

That is easily the harshest, but funniest comment I've ever read here.

Photo: http://prn.newscom.com/c...view&tr=1&row=1

I echo morriscox's comment. Security?
Also, does it provide wired USB as well?

Also: 1.5TB drive? In a single drive? I hadn't realised they've got up to that now.

What's the security on this? WEP-only? :) WPA2? Any security at all?