Amimon Releases Wireless WHDI Specs

There is no single wireless HD standard, per se, but chip designer Amimon has unleashed the specs of one of the standards most used by HD device makers, to date, WHDI.

WHDI is a 5GHz Wi-Fi- technology that will robustly deliver up to 1080p video at a refresh rate of 60Hz refresh rates and 12-bit color depth according to the company. The chipmaker says the standard has been successfully tested to penetrate several walls (it didn't say what type) up to distances of about 100 feet. Data rates, it said, max out at about 3Gbps via a 40MHz channel.

Initially a year ago, Amimon seemed to only promise eventual wireless HD support for 720p, but it said the technology has evolved so quickly that WHDI can now support HDCP 2.0 (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection).

The chipmaker said the WHDI chips include two-chip receivers and transmitters that employ a 90nm CMOS baseband and a silicon germanium radio (for total power consumption of roughly 3W).

Amimon said bona fide members of the WHDI Consortium may now access the specs (for $2,000 annually) if they sign up before the end of 2009. The consortium plans to create an "interoperability test suite" and certification laboratory by the third quarter of 2010. According to the chipmaker, the first CE products using the WHDI standard could be shipped for, or prior to, the 2010 holiday sales season.

Amimon said Sharp and Sony have committed to using the WHDI standard in their future devices. Other CE makers in the consortium (although not formally committed yet to WHDI) include Hitachi, LG, Motorola and Samsung.