What the hell is gigawire?
Does anyone really know??? Some say its Firewire 2, and othes say its more like Airport. According to AtAT, the us trademark listing (registered to Apple) says:
[quote]
Telecommunication services; cellular telephone communication; Communication by computer terminals, communication by telephone, facsimile transmission; providing of electronic mail (E-Mail); computer aided transmission of messages and images; communication between computer peripherals and devices; information about telecommunication.
<hr></blockquote>
That sound more than some kind of wireless firewire or whatever. Also, I noticed its listed as a "Service Mark" and a trademark.
So, does anyone really know what it is or what it could be used for?
[quote]
Telecommunication services; cellular telephone communication; Communication by computer terminals, communication by telephone, facsimile transmission; providing of electronic mail (E-Mail); computer aided transmission of messages and images; communication between computer peripherals and devices; information about telecommunication.
<hr></blockquote>
That sound more than some kind of wireless firewire or whatever. Also, I noticed its listed as a "Service Mark" and a trademark.
So, does anyone really know what it is or what it could be used for?
Comments
Here's an artical all about it...
<a href="http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleId=CA91031"; target="_blank">http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleId=CA91031</a>;
It looks sick. It will toast FireWire, IEEE 1394a, and go up to 100feet. Cool stuff.
<strong>Well, no one is actually using the term "gigawire" yet. However most of us feel that this is probably going to be what Apple calls IEEE 1394b.
Here's an artical all about it...
<a href="http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleId=CA91031"; target="_blank">http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layo ut=article&articleId=CA91031</a>
It looks sick. It will toast FireWire, IEEE 1394a, and go up to 100feet. Cool stuff.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hmmm so do ya think Apple just lied to the US Tradmark office? Or maybe, we should just ignore all of the wireless references in the government document... Wait I know, I know, GigaWire sounds like FireWire so the facts be damned lets just roll along our own merry way all because it 'sounds the same' <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Totally amazing...
Dave
IEEE 1394b: Faster, Longer and Simpler
Michael Johas Teener -- Electronic News, 7/2/2001
For the past 18 months, a group of dedicated engineers has been working to enhance and optimize the performance of the industry's most powerful multimedia standard: IEEE 1394. Now, IEEE 1394b is ready to roll, loaded with bandwidth, speed, distance and other improvements, along with total compatibility with the original IEEE 1394-1995 and 1394a versions.
IEEE 1394b will supplement the legacy IEEE 1394-1995 and 1394a specifications. It keeps all the vital features of those earlier versions: point-to-point connectivity, peer-to-peer operation, plug-and-play capability, isochronous operation (guaranteed timing) and asynchronous operation (guaranteed delivery, complete reliability) and, of course, a very logical bus model.
But IEEE 1394b will lead to expanded adoption in many of the applications where 1394 is firmly established, including DTV, set-top boxes, VCRs and DVDs. Virtually all of these products will be 1394-enabled by the year 2002. The 'b' version also paves the way for a new round of application development for home networking, with its high speeds, low bit error and guaranteed latency requirements. IEEE 1394b's enhancements also definitely will benefit computer peripherals, which require higher speeds as disk-head read rates increase and as the pixel densities and color depths in imaging devices such as printers and scanners continue to improve.
IEEE 1394b allows extensions to 800Mbit/sec., 1.6Gbit/sec. and 3.2Gbit/sec., all over copper wire. It supports long-distance transfers to 100 meters over a variety of media: CAT-5 unshielded cable at 100Mbit/sec., existing plastic optical fiber at 200Mbits/sec., next-generation plastic optical fiber at 400Mbit/sec. and 50-micron mulitmode glass optical fiber at up to 3.2Gbit/sec. The improved speed and distance capabilities of 1394b result from two major improvements: overlapped arbitration and advanced data encoding.
The highly efficient bus arbitration scheme, known as BOSS (Bus Owner Supervisor Selector), implements overlapped, pipelined arbitration, so the arbitration protocol runs in parallel with data transmissions. This is different from the 1394-1995 and 1394a legacy versions, both of which alternate between data transmission and arbitration.
The data encoding improvements are based on the 8B10B codes used by Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet and add more robust control codes and scrambling of both data and control symbols. This scrambling results in much lower average emissionsÂ?more than 20dB below unscrambled codes. Together, the two improvements are called the beta mode of operation to distinguish it from the 1394-1995/1394a legacy mode.
The costs of 1394b silicon and 1394b-enabled products are expected to be roughly the same as products using earlier versions, while silicon and products that use only the beta mode will be even less. Gate counts for 1394b ICs will double to between 20,000 and 25,000, but the beta-only version, using unidirectional arbitration signaling instead of common-mode signaling, will reduce voltages and allow galvanic isolation for much simpler analog design and reduced die size. Another key application permitted by 1394b is casual storage, the kind that hard drive and mobile storage users hook up at random times. The 1394b standard provides significant amounts of bus power (up to 25 watts) along with aggressive power management so that power is only used when actually needed; users with portable computers and peripherals that want to use casual storage will not need a battery-powered drive or power bricks. Both hard disks and optical media such as CDs, DVDs and CD-RW require more than 5W while seeking and spinning up, making this an important issue. Products and technology based on 1394b are already here or on the way. Look for silicon from Texas Instruments, NEC, Panasonic and Agere sometime in the third and fourth calendar quarters. Using previous versions of the 1394b specification, Omneon Video Networks is shipping digital video distribution networks with 300m, 800Mbit/sec. connections using multimode glass fiber, and NEC Corp. is shipping a plastic optical fiber system. New connectors, with much improved shielding and signal isolation, from Molex Inc. are ready now.
I think GigaWire is some sort of Wireless Internet protocol developed by Apple and some sort of satelite communications company.
Apple and this company would act as an ISP for satelite internet connections. Imagine Gigabit per second download speeds. It would jive with all of Apple's weird messages that been posted the last couple of days.
Imagine the advantage Apple products (Especially laptops or the iWalk) would have if they all were able to connect to the internet using a super, super fast wire-less satelite connection. Examples would include checking your e-mail from anywhere or maybe being able to turn on your house lights on because you forgot to when you went out (read: possible digital device).
Of course, this new GigaWire would actually be available only for the products being released at MacWorld.
Just my two cents.
Thanks
Dave
[ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: Dave K. ]</p>
Lets do this one last time... Firewire isn't Gigawire just because they kinda sound alike nor does Gigawire = Firewire because other people you've talked to 'on the net' tell you so.
Maybe if we re-write things it'll make it easier for those who are having trouble...
Gigawire (from the United States Trademark Office Files)
------------------------------------------------------------
o Telecommunication services;
o cellular telephone communication;
o Communication by computer terminals, communication by telephone, facsimile transmission;
o providing of electronic mail (E-Mail);
o computer aided transmission of messages and images;
o communication between computer peripherals and devices;
o information about telecommunication;
------------------------------------------------------------
Please, someone (anyone) just explain to me how those items listed above fit in with Firewire (no matter what the speed is!!).
If you choose not explain how the text of the SM/TM fit in with Firewire then I'm going to have to assume you'd rather ignore what was registered with the US Government PTO and that you'd rather not let the silly facts get in the way.
Hey it's fine by me but I gotta tell ya anyone who just follows the pack without using their own brain and ignoring the facts doesn't come off as too smart to me.
Dave
[ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: DaveGee ]</p>
<strong>.....I think GigaWire is some sort of Wireless Internet protocol developed by Apple and some sort of satelite communications company. Apple and this company would act as an ISP for satelite internet connections. Imagine Gigabit per second download speeds. It would jive with all of Apple's weird messages that been posted the last couple of days. Imagine the advantage Apple products (Especially laptops or the iWalk) would have if they all were able to connect to the internet using a super, super fast wire-less satelite connection. Examples would include checking your e-mail from anywhere or maybe being able to turn on your house lights on because you forgot to when you went out (read: possible digital device). Of course, this new GigaWire would actually be available only for the products being released at MacWorld. Just my two cents.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Godbess you Dave K.
Someone is finally thinking OUTSIDE the box! I have to tell you I think you're on to something...
The facts...
SkyCorp is for real... They have been featured on Apples web site and the CEO is a very smart man and has been in the Biz for quite some time and has been involved with NASA and to some degree with the ISS.
SkyCorp was looking for 50 beta testers for testing from apx Nov 1st to Nov 30th of this year.
SkyCorp had said that the first test launch was due to happen sometime in Oct (up to the ISS) and then assembeled/deployed directly from the ISS. No news has been reported about SkyCorp and any of the last few shuttle launches and the SkyCorp website hasn't been touched (or so it would seem) since 2000.
Dennis Wingo was quite active on the usenet space / satellite forums and seemed to be well respected and showed that he knew his stuff but after Dec 1999 he hasn't posted anything... While I searched he never spoke about SkyCorp while on usenet.
It would almost seem as if SkyCorp just fell off the face of the earth (no Press Releases) no web site updates etc but Apple did run a feature on them just a few months ago (Oct? Nov?) and Dennis was talked about in a few stories I found this year..
One of the stories I found spoke about FCC licenses to transmit data via Satellite and Dennis said (last year?) he was working on getting approval but the way the story was written it made it sound like it could take some time for something like that to happen (so how and why is NASA gonna let this guy drop a satellite into space???) I think Dennis may have been holding back from the reported..
In another story (maybe it was the same as above) where Dennis was interviewed he spoke of a modified Airport technology to provide communications with users on the ground... This one I have a really hard time understanding since after doing a ton of research on 802.11? I can't find ANYONE talking about how it could LEGALLY as in FCC LEGALLY provide a method of communications via a LEOS (low earth orbit satellite). I think the lowest LEOS is apx 500 MILES... But all Dennis said was he had that problem solved (pretty amazing but he wasn't clear if he just knew how to fix it (on paper) OR also knew how to fix it so the FCC would okay it) those are two totally different things.
Now we have all the hints on the Apple web site and they sure could point to something such as this... and boy would I so effing psyched! Apple would be in the press for the rest of the year... but this is still something that is going to happen in the next 48 hours...
You'd need to have a ring of apx 500 satellites to provide worldwide (and/or) 24 hour access... since at the lower altitude anything less than a FULL RING around the earth would mean that at some time SOMEWHERE would be without service...
Hmmm anyone find a ISS web cam? Keep on the lookout for 500 G4 cubes... :eek: but I have a feeling they aren't quite up there yet. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
Dave
[ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: DaveGee ]</p>
Could this also explain why MacWorld Expo now has a SECOND keynote set for Tuesday where Phill Shiller and Avi will be talking about OS X?
Normally Steve would cover most of that stuff in his keynote wouldn't he? Well, if the keynote is going to head into the direction of Satellite Communications and wireless stuff etc etc etc not to mention any Apple products new iMac and any other updates I think Steve will have way too much on his plate to do Photshop bakeoffs and OS X feature rundowns.. And since it has been reported that OS X 1.2 is set for a SUMMER release any demo done now would be pretty shaky and not something Steve would want to experience.. Nothing worse than a demo crash to knock the wind out of a presentation.
Phil and Avi can do that tomorrow...
Yep it sure seems to fit... but just because it looks like it fits doesn't mean it's true... I'd love to see more hard facts... but as you can see I'm getting my hopes up already.
Dave