Toshiba Builds 802.11a into Notebooks
Satellite 6100 Pro family will include wireless radio module along with other WLAN equipment.
Tom Krazit, IDG News Service
LAS VEGAS--Toshiba will include an 802.11a wireless radio module in its Satellite 6100 Pro lineup of business notebooks by the end of the year, the company is announcing at Comdex here. The company is also releasing a wireless access point for home users.
Antennas for the more common 802.11b and the newer 802.11a wireless standards have been included in the Satellite Pro series since earlier this year, said Oscar Koenders, vice president of product marketing and worldwide product planning.
Wired for Future
"We realized the 'a' standard was going to be around at some point in time," and Toshiba wanted to make sure users could buy a notebook today with technology that will be available down the road, Koenders said.
Notebook computers with wireless LAN technologies (WLAN) need both the antenna, normally built into a PC, and the radio module or transceiver, normally plugged into a slot on the side or back of the notebook, to connect to the Internet. However, Toshiba's design allows the user to access the Internet using either the "a" or "b" standard without an external card, Koenders said.
"If they're (the user) in a 'b' area, they can use that standard. If they're in an 'a' area, they can use that. At some point in time, the industry will move from 'b' everywhere to 'a' and 'b' everywhere," he said.
The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) developed the 802.11 standards for WLAN connections. The 802.11b standard is the most common, and is also known as WiFi. It allows data to be transferred wirelessly at speeds of 11 megabits per second (mbps). The newer standard, 802.11a, allows for data-transfer speeds of up to 54mbps, but usually runs slower, and operates at higher frequencies.
Access Point Ships
Toshiba's WRC-1000 wireless access point will be available for consumers this week, Koenders said. It will be priced at $149 with a $30 mail-in rebate.
Toshiba took the technology from some of its "hot spot" access points, and condensed it into an access point for home users. Hot spots are public WLANs, usually available in places like hotel lobbys, airports, and coffee shops.
