Mitac's UWB hub can stream movies to a PC

Taiwanese contract equipment maker Mitac International Corp. will next month begin production of a UWB (Ultra Wide Band) hub capable of wirelessly streaming a high-definition movie from a portable hard disk to a computer.

Sumner Lemon

Taiwanese contract equipment maker Mitac International Corp. will next month begin production of a UWB (Ultra Wide Band) hub capable of wirelessly streaming a high-definition movie from a portable hard disk to a computer.

Mitac demonstrated the MUH-4100 UWB hub, which will go into production next month, at the annual Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany. The hub was used to stream a high-definition movie on a portable hard disk that was connected to the hub via a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port. The video streamed without interruption to a notebook computer equipped with a MUD-4100 USB dongle to receive the UWB signal.

Able to move data at speeds equal to hundreds of megabits per second, UWB is better suited to streaming media than Wi-Fi, which offers slower transfer speeds.

A Mitac sales executive manning the company's booth said the UWB hub would likely hit markets within two months or so from the start of production. That means the first units could be hitting store shelves in June. Retail pricing depends ultimately on the vendors who procure the hubs from Mitac, but the sales executive estimated they would cost about US$200.

The hub is equipped with four USB ports and can support up to 32 UWB connections over a range of 10 meters, or about 30 feet, Mitac said. The UWB hub currently only works with computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system.

Software drivers for the hub's UWB chipset that work with Windows Vista will not be available until June, the sales executive said.