NICTA showcases world-first chip technology

NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence, is pleased to announce the first public demonstration of a prototype system using its world-first 60GHz Gigabit wireless (GiFi) chip technology.

"Today, we will be demonstrating the transmission of wireless video using the 60GHz chipset," explained NICTA’s Gigabit Wireless Project Leader Professor Stan Skafidas. The demonstration comes after a research effort spanning four years, involving a team of 15 researchers. "Our achievement resulted from understanding emerging technology trends, bringing together a team with the right knowledge and skills and collaborating with key industry players," Professor Skafidas added.

"I am delighted with the progress our Gigabit Wireless team has made," said NICTA Chief Executive Officer Dr David Skellern. "Their success reflects the talent of the people involved and NICTA’s determination to undertake imaginative, use-inspired research to build and sustain Australia’s future digital economy."

The GiFi chip is the world’s first transceiver integrated on a single chip operating at 60GHz on the CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) process, the most common semiconductor technology. The breakthrough will lead to wirelessly connected environments that will enjoy audio and video transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits per second, ten times the current maximum wireless transfer rate, at one-tenth the cost.

NICTA released the chipset last year and today’s demonstration is the first time it has been on public display. In the future, Gigabit wireless technology will be used to show DVD movies on High Definition Digital TV without a wired connection and for very fast downloads of content from devices such as PDAs, games consoles and wireless digital cameras.

Professor Skafidas is scheduled to demonstrate the prototype chip following the launch of a research and development grants program by Victorian Government Minister for Innovation, Gavin Jennings, at 11.30am in Melbourne.

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Contact: Clare Matuska
Phone: +61 2 9376 2062 or 0405 251 896
Email: clare.matuska@nicta.com.au