I found a file on my laptop, "comdexreport.sxw". Sorry for the late posting.. <http://www.bawug.org/images/cons/2002_apachecon_comdex/>.
The "WiFi Pavilion" included a handful of chipset vendors, equipment manufactures and of course the WiFi Alliance (the artist formerly known as WECA). AMD, Broadcom and Intersil were all displaying up-n-coming 11b/a/g/combo chipset sets. For some odd reason, I ran across dozen of attendees all asking the same question: What's the current draw in power save mode? No one seemed to care about the normal transmitting mode RF output power; nor if the MAC was implemented in software or firmware/API tied to hardware. It was rare to ever hear a request for quantity chipset prices. Obviously, the show was dominated by consumers who sniff the PDA/Handheld glue. I can't wait till PDA's have enough battery power for 200mW WiLDing. Ti wouldn't give a timeframe for Unix drivers (though it sounds like from a recent posting, GlobalSunTech has "released" a Linux binary driver), so much for Open Source draft 802.11g. I gave Atheros a very stiff argument on driver availability; "Do you want to loose your customers today or in 6 months?". They pointed me to "authorized partners", I don't want partners, I want an Linux/BSD driver. I know they realize competition is around the corner, get a clue guys. You know it has to happen sometime. Cisco pushed their 1200 series, the argument was "Your IT staff is comfortable with our command line IOS interface; we've now ported that over to our wireless product line". From my prospective, Cisco's latest feature tweak offering 16 simultaneous SSID's (each with an associated EAP method and VLAN) is beyond sexy. This is EXACTLY what multi-HSO (Hotspot Operator) environments need; ie: airports and other high competition areas. It's a bummer the price tag is outrageous, considering that an open source solution will emerge when the right chipset comes along, anyday now... (pointing to Thompson). Buffalo, Netgear and Z-Com (Zcomax in the states) showed various consumer routers, bridges, and AP's. This was my first Comdex, and probably my last (if they're still around). The show just wasn't worth it. More booths were dedicated to transparent fans, blue LEDs, rainbow ribbon cables and pre-case mod'd cases. It's funny how the industry eventually adopts consumer demand and then we regret it. A number of LinuxWorld attendees tell me how "weird" it is to see Sun and IBM pushing Open Source. "Kids, I remember when Case Moding required parts from HSC, Tap Plastics, Home Depot and Fry's". I can't wait till the day of "Grandkids, I remember community wireless routers required parts from Soekris, Pelican, Senao, Sundisk and I still had to roll my own software!" -- Matt Peterson another.geek.without.a.life [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://matt.peterson.org/ ------------------------------------------------- -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
