USB did away with specialized cables and magic incantations to attach peripherals to computers. Now, Wireless USB plans on doing away with cables completely. Here’s a look at how it works and when you can expect it to show up in Linux.
How we love the Universal Serial Bus, at least those of us who remember the days of the serial and parallel cables. Jettisoning forever all that mucking about with IRQs and other technical arcana, USB allowed users to easily attach and detach printers, digital cameras, disk drives, memory “sticks” and other devices.
Now the folks that shepherd USB, the USB Implementers Forum (http://www.usb.org/), have presented the specifications for doing USB wirelessly. Soon, all those thin USB cables on your desk, lying about like snakes on hot pavement, could be sent packing as well.
The Intent of Wireless USB
The forum is designing Wireless USB (WUSB) for those devices for which a WiFi connection would be overkill, either for power consumption or just because such devices don’t need a full-fledged network address. The designers of WUSB figure that there are dozens of gadgets around the home, from printers to wireless monitors, that could benefit. Wireless personal area networking, or WPAN, is the buzzphrase coined for such collections.
Of course, Bluetooth (http://www.bluetooth.com/) has offered wireless connectivity for several years now, with middling success at best. The word on Bluetooth? It’s too complicated to set up, and too few device makers included the option in their products. However, thanks to the pretty much universal success of USB, WUSB may succeed in a mass market way where Bluetooth faltered.
“The USB brand is fairly well recognized by consumers, so we think that…
Please log in to view this content.
Not Yet a Member?
Register with LinuxMagazine.com and get free access to the entire archive, including:
