esummers

As long as we’re speculating, I could see Apple release two Macs.  One based on iPad internals for an MBA that uses a single chip with iOS class SSD and RAM.  This one will be super thin and light.  No thunderbolt support.  Another based on a new high performance Arm chip with high performance memory and I/O offloaded to a T2 or similar chip paired with it for high performance storage, thunderbolt, etc.  Basically similar to PC designs where you put your cores on a “hot chip” and I/O on a cold chip then overclock it as far as possible.

OutdoorAppDeveloper said:

Sounds cool. I wonder what developers could do with the new spec if iOS had an actual WiFi SDK? I guess we will never know.

Err. They do have an API for 802.11ay it would be the NSNetService and MultipeerConnectivity SDKs.

Watch VirnetX's "Gabriel Collaboration Suite" quietly disappear after they win their settlement.  That product has zero customers and only exists to show that they have an implementation of their overly broad patents.

xyzzy01 said:

I wonder why? It's not like Wifi6 / 802.11ax isn't plenty fast enough - and then some, by orders of magnitude - for a phone.

802.11ay isn't finished yet (note: This is not the successor to Wifi 6), and while it is even faster, it also has severe limitations - e.g. don't expect it to penetrate walls/people. It would be perfect for things like replacing HDMI (less cables to your TV hanging on the wall),  wireless VR etc... but I don't see a good reason to add support for a draft version to a phone.

It makes sense to me to add it.  The draft version would at least work across Apple devices.  For a protocol designed for accessories, that is fine.  Although I don’t know, there is a good chance it is software upgradeable to final spec since everything that requires hardware support has probably already been agreed upon.  Beyond strategic value in Apple’s dev pipeline, it is probably close to the ax implementation, so why not implement it.

Soli said:

Maybe, but with iPhones supporting 802.11ax/WiFi6, relatively few users using WiFi6 routers, and Macs still without WiFi6, I don't see 802.11ay happening this year so close to the draft.

Remember that 802.11ay is the new version of Wi-Gig (basically the sister spec to 802.11ax), so it really isn’t intended or ideal for routers.  However it may get some use in routers intended to be used outdoors.  It uses a different frequency band that can travel through water vapor better, but is very poor at traveling through walls, glass, or human bodies.  It generally requires line-of-sight to the device.  It is really designed for direct device-to-device communication for things that need orders of magnitude higher bandwidth (up to 400 gigabit) then bluetooth.  Think AirPlay, AirDrop, and Apple’s rumored AR headset.