SD Card to Add Wi-Fi Capability
Chip design company SyChip Inc. is testing software for its SDIO (secure digital I/O) WLAN card so it can be used to add Wi-Fi capability to smart phones. With the card and the software, smart phones can use a WLAN to transmit data and double as a cordless VoIP when linked to a corporate IP telephony service, said Navi Miglani, SyChip’s director of marketing.
During a session at the Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo in San Jose, California, Wednesday, Miglani showed a Windows Mobile-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. i600 device with the SDIO card and a beta version of the driver software. A final version is due out in the first quarter of 2004, along with software for Palm OS-based smart phones, he said. SyChip is also working on software to make its SDIO cards work with smart phones based on Symbian Ltd.’s namesake operating system, though Miglani could not say when his company would deliver drivers for that operating system. Continue >>