A Breakthrough for Motorola

Wireless technology giant Motorola is working with major video game companies to develop chips that would enable gamers to play each other on wireless networks at home.

Motorola believes the new technology would streamline current "untethered" gaming, making it cheaper, faster and able to run at lower power without the delays commonly found on wireless networks.

Elite console manufacturers, such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, are planning to launching online game play for their consoles in upcoming months.

The expected exponential growth in the wireless gaming market legitimizes it as a viable business endeavor for Motorola. U.S. sales of hardware and software topped $9 billion last year, and the global sales tally is expected to pass $30 billion in 2002.

Motorola believes the challenge in constructing next-generation, wireless gaming systems is the need for low power, low cost and most importantly, very low "latency," which is small fractions of a second between the sending of a packet of data and the receipt of a response.

The new chips would reduce the latency time that the majority of current wireless Internet products have.

By utilizing an unlicensed 2.4 GHz radio spectrum, the new chips would stand apart from competing wireless data protocols, such as Bluetooth and 802.11.

The planned full production in the current quarter will facilitate data transfers of up to 5 Mbps at a range of up to 15 yards.