- Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read - Winston Churchill
Future of data exchange is touch and go
JAPANESE ELECTRONICS GIANT SONY today released the first batch of chips featuring a new data exchange technology called Transfer Jet.
The chips, which are hypothetically capable of transferring data at speeds of up to 520Mbps, will actually have a real word transfer speed closer to 375Mbps once error correction and other environmental factors are taken into consideration.
But there's no need to worry that all of your Bluetooth devices will soon be finding their eway into the nearest bin, as Transfer Jet has been designed to fill a competely different niche in the increasingly crowded gadget market.
The chips, which are small enough to be crammed into even the tiniest of memory cards opening up a massive raft of applications, have a tiny amount of radio frequency output as they are designed to be used in very close proximity to the device receiving the data transfer. In fact, the power has been ramped down so far that the maximum transmission distance is about three centimetres.
Sony and the fellow members of the Transfer Jet consortium - which was set up in July 2008 and includes such big punchers as Canon, Toshiba, Casio, Kodak, Panasonic and Pioneer among a veritable Who's Who of electronic superpowers - are jointly hoping that the new tech will become an industry standard for moving reletivley small amounts of data between devices.
Hold your digital camera close enough to your printer and your photos will be automagically ripped and printed. Touch your smartphone against a friend's and files can be shot back and forth instantly. Hold your PDA against an information point in a shopping centre and you'll have all the maps, data and no doubt annoying advertising you could ever need.
Two new LSI chips, the imaginatively named CXD3267AGG and CXD3268AGW are available along with a reference kit and a software developement kit from today, and you can expect to see TJ-enabled devices tipping up in the first quarter of next year, if not sooner.
Sony is also releasing three prebuilt modules incorprating the new chips. A compact module for use in mobile devices like phones and gaming handhelds, a PCI Express mini card module for notebooks and a USB connection module will all make integration simpler for non consortium OEMs to use the technology. Sample prices for both LSI chips are set at 1,500 yen (£10). µ
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This is a neat idea, but the concept comes back to what we used to be able to do with IR ports on handheld device and laptops. Of course in comparison, speeds of transfer compared to IR is way beyond it. So with faster speeds and, easy connection and better compatibility, this will either take off huge or go the way of IR
IR WORKS GREAT ON MY TV, VCR, SET TOP BOX, DVD PLAYER, PS2. AND I CAN BE MORE THAN 30MM AWAY TOO.
IF JT IS GOING TO REPLACE IR, ITS GOING TO HAVE TO WORK MORE THAN 30MM DISTANCE OTHERWISE WHAT IS THE POINT??
375Mbps - not very impressive. That comes out to around 45MB/s, and at an effective range of only about an inch, I would rather just use USB 3.0 - which provides 3200Mbps (400MB/s) and will surely be mainstream well before this Transfer Jet tech is.
I say Sony should increase the range to something that actually makes the wireless part worthwhile, or scrap the whole project entirely.
Bluetooth is getting faster all the time - why do we need yet-another-wireless-transfer-protocol that isn't compatible with anything else around? Truth is, we don't - this is proprietary Sony cr@p. Avoid.
What about the power usage? It's nice and all to have these wireless chips that can pump bits to no end, but if it's eating up lots of power at the same time I might as well stay corded.
the distances is probably for security. I can see it now, with the right app all you have to do is walk by someone and u have all the info on their phone.