SD card to add Wi-Fi capability to smart phones

Chip design company SyChip is testing software for its SDIO (secure digital I/O) WLAN (wireless LAN) card so it can be used to add Wi-Fi capability to smart phones.

With the card and the software, smart phones can use a WLAN to transmit data and double as a cordless VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone when linked to a corporate IP telephony service, said Navi Miglani, SyChip’s director of marketing.

Wi-Fi capability could be a welcome addition for smart phone users as it offers higher transmission speeds than current phone networks. Also, VoIP users will only need one handset that they can use as both a mobile phone while on the road and as their work phone in the office.

SyChip’s SDIO 802.11b WLAN card is currently sold as a PDA (personal digital assistant) accessory by SanDisk Corp., ViewSonic Corp. and Socket Communications Inc. It retails for about $130. However, for smart phone use SyChip had to develop new driver software.

“Smart phones have a different user interface, with buttons instead of a touch screen. We had to develop software for that,” Miglani said.

During a session at the Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo in San Jose, California, Wednesday, Miglani showed a Windows Mobile-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. i600 device with the SDIO card and a beta version of the driver software. A final version is due out in the first quarter of 2004, along with software for Palm OS-based smart phones, he said.

SyChip is also working on software to make its SDIO cards work with smart phones based on Symbian Ltd.’s namesake operating system, though Miglani could not say when his company would deliver drivers for that operating system.

Smart phone users will have to manually install the drivers on their devices to use WLAN. This will most likely be done through synchronization with a PC, Miglani said. SyChip is working with Microsoft Corp. with the hope of having its drivers included in future versions of the Windows Mobile software for smart phones.

Jason Gordon, product manager in Microsoft’s Mobile Devices Division, could not make any promises.

“While we have nothing to announce today, one of Microsoft’s top priorities is to continue to empower the Windows Mobile software and hardware developer community with both the technical tools and business support to easily develop and market solutions that allow people to connect to people and information in new ways,” he said in a statement.

Wi-Fi capability is valuable, but users will want to have it built into products and not in the form of an expansion card, said Michael Gartenberg, a research director at Jupiter Research.

“Many organizations will be looking for devices that have Wi-Fi functionality built in, rather than looking at the aftermarket for expansion cards. For one thing, the cards tend to protrude on some of the devices, that will certainly hamper usability. Battery life is a second issue. If I am now powering an SDIO Wi-Fi card, that can severely restrict battery life,” he said.

On the Samsung device, SyChip’s Miglani showed the SDIO card did jut out from the side of the phone.

Phones that have Wi-Fi built in are on the horizon. In Japan, for example, NTT DoCoMo Inc. and NEC Corp. have developed a handset that supports both 3G (third-generation) cellular telephony and WLAN. The device is due out around the beginning of the new Japanese fiscal year, which starts in April.