Wisair is determined to take USB cables off of the personal computer. The company has taken another step in the Ultra Wideband (UWB) industry with the release of a Wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) reference design.
The new reference design includes a WUSB PC dongle and a WUSB hub, providing consumer electronics and peripheral manufacturers with the means to offer customers wireless connectivity to existing USB-enabled devices.
Printers, scanners, remote hard disk drives, digital cameras and mobile phones are able to plug directly into the WUSB Hub and receive wireless connectivity to a PC. The WUSB Hub replaces any wireline USB connection with a wireless connection.
We had heard that wireless was the direction for the 3rd generation of USB products, but this is the first actual product I’ve seen. Between the omnipresent WiFi, and the sexy Bluetooth products, Wireless USB may be a little late to this wireless party. On the other hand, most of the Bluetooth gear is expensive, and most computers do not ship with a Bluetooth transmitter built in. If the USB folks could integrate their transmitter into their existing USB chips, and the new computers shipped with it built in, they may leap frog Bluetooth in this game. In the meantime, I look forward to not having so many cables around my desk!
See here, here, and here for more info.