IBM Corp. and Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek Inc. announced they joined forces in developing a next-generation wireless chipsets relying on IBM's previous work on its millimeter-wave (mmWave) band. The chips would use a ultra-high 60GHz frequency, a free/unlicensed band which features a large amount of bandwidth and a large worldwide overlap.

The new technology enables very fast data transfer. In fact, IBM officials say the technology is fast enough to transfer a 10G file in 5 seconds, compared with the 10 minutes needed with a current Wi-Fi link. This means uncompressed HD TV could be streamed wirelessly using a mmWave connection, making it ideal for such applications as the link between set top boxes and TVs. The IEEE 802.15.3c working group will eventually standardize the use of the 60GHz band.

"This collaborative effort will enable consumers to wirelessly transfer large multimedia data files around their home and/or offices in seconds," said T.C. Chen, a vice president at science and technology at IBM Research.

IBM and MediaTek are to collaborate for the following three years on this technology, which IBM is working on since 2003. The company says it was originally funded by NASA as a technology for inter-satellite links but now it's being funded by DARPA, broadening the work to include other bands and capabilities.

IBM has previously demonstrated a fully integrated 60-GHz receiver and transmitter chipset, last year, which achieved 630 Mbps throughput at a maximum range of ten meters. This year's claims seem to put the throughput around 16Gbps, significantly higher.

MediaTek announced last month it is to buy Analog Devices Inc's wireless chip business for $350 million. MediaTek also has significant expertise in digital baseband and video processing.

"MediaTek has constantly provided its customers with the most advanced features and capabilities to enable the best communication as well as entertainment experience," said MediaTek spokesperson Mingto Yu. "This joint effort has made it possible to take advantage of millimeter wave radio technology."

Eventually, the chips will be produced using a 65 nm manufacturing process on the most widely used chip manufacturing technology, CMOS (Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor).