The Wireless Gigabit Alliance has announced progress toward the creation of short-range Wi-Fi technology operating at 60GHz. According to the Alliance, version 1.1 of the WiGig specification, which is expected to be released within a few weeks, is the result of fine-tuning and enhancing the initial 1.0 release from May 2010 with feedback from Alliance members. Testing of prototype products is expected to take place in the fall.

The 1.1 release is considered to be certification ready, so a series of certification tests should be set by the second half of 2012. These tests will be a joint project between the Wireless Gigabit Alliance and the Wi-Fi Alliance, and are crucial for ensuring the compliance and interoperability of new products based on the WiGig technology. Commercial products are typically only allowed to be sold after being certified.

In addition, the group announced the WiGig Bus Extension specification to allow the popular PCI Express bus to run on top of WiGig. A companion WiGig Serial Extension adaption layer for USB is expected to be finalized later this year. The Alliance indicated that it's hopeful about forging links with the PCI Special Interest Group and the USB Implementers Forum to open the door to the creation of wireless USB and PCIe over WiGig products. The Alliance also announced that it has become an adopter of HDMI Licensing LLC.

The potential for up to 7Gbps data transfer speeds over wireless is tremendous, and it should yield data transfer rates superior to peripheral technologies like USB 2.0 that are widely used today. Mark Grodzinsky, chairman of the WiGig Alliance's marketing group, was quoted as saying: "I fully expect to see the product ramp to start midyear next year," with an "explosion" of products expected in 2013.

For more:
- check out this article at EE Times
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at CNET News

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