Apple Computer Inc, which was originally introduced to GEC Plc’s GEC Plessey Semiconductors Ltd as a result of its investment in the chipmaker’s foundry customer Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, has now established a more direct relationship with the British company, and the two have jointly developed a wireless communications system intended for use in a broad range of applications, including portable and desktop devices. The system will be licensed for integration within a variety of network environments and systems and is the fruit of a two-year research and development programme which began as a study of future international communications needs which determinied that absolute data integrity was the top priority, closely followed by high security, ad-hoc collaboration and local area access. The system is designed to ensure a reliable local area link supporting multiple users in the internationally available 2.45GHz band, and the partners claim that data throughput can be up to 10 times that achieved using other approaches. The DE6003 wireless transceiver uses spread spectrum frequency hopping so that many users can simultaneously exchange broadband data with each other or with a network base-station access point and uses an Apple protocol to provide the highest integrity system within the frequencies defined by the US Federal Communications Commission. The DE6003 is a plug-in-module that provides a purely digital interface and GEC Plessey says that with it, system designers need add only the media access and physical control protocol to suit the application. The device costs $225 when you order 10,000 or more.
