Intel cancels WiGig cards and 802.11ad docking parts
Intel is halting production for 60 GHz 802.11ad WIFI on their laptop and thus other add-in modules. The AD WIFI connection uses the 60hz band, and in a direct line of sight you can reach 7 Gbit/s on short distances through docking two devices.
As it seems, the market has very little interest in the new AD spec, few docking stations have been sold. Only a few 802.11ad docking stations have been released. And it likely all has to do with the adoption rate of Intel's Thunderbolt 3 release with USB Type-C allowing you to dock laptops over a wire (at speeds up to 40 Gbit/s).
Manufacturers can place orders for AD compatible add-in cards up-to September 29th, after which deliveries will take place until the end of the year, but after that, AD WIFI is no longer a thing for Intel laptops. Intel might continue to support the 802.11ad spec for other applications though, like wireless-control of VR headsets.
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As I understand it, interference nor range is not the problem so much as a lack of penetration through obstacles. 60ghz (and even 5ghz) has wonderful line of sight range, but can barely go through a wall. The latency on my AirFiber bridges is nearly as good as hardwire, and they are well over a kilometer away from each other. 60ghz has an even harder time going through things than 5ghz does, and this whole beamforming thing where they bounce the signal off and around obstacles is proving to be quite difficult to make work in practice. I believe it is also one of the big reasons holding up the mass roullout of 5G celluar networks.
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You're right - penetration is mostly the problem. But from what I recall, current ad technology doesn't have that great of range. None of that really matters in a VR environment, though. You're still probably going to want to use the headset in the same room as the receiver, so it ought to work just fine. Wearers of the headset could have a sort of halo above their head that acts as the antenna, so it doesn't matter what direction they face in. VR headsets already require line-of-sight to things like the base stations, so the wireless transmitter could be combined on one of them. To me, all of this seems like a no-brainer.
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I agree. VR headsets, wireless scanners, wireless displays.......all great applications for 60ghz.
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I wish there would be such a thing as wireless displayport that supports1080p @ 144hz or even 240hz :p I would definitely run my second monitor wirelessly.
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I personally feel ad will never and should never take off, as a generic WiFi standard. I feel it makes for the perfect opportunity to make vr headsets wireless. Currently, widi is oberall a failure, because there is too much interference (which worsens latency), and if you're sharing a network then you lose a lot of bandwidth. If ad were used for widi, it could work for ad-hoc connections with little interference. The range issue would mostly be irrelevant, since you'd probably be in the same room anyway.