Australia’s Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, announced funding for Nitero, a company formed by researchers from National ICT Australia (NICTA). The AU$1.43 M grant is part of an effort to bring Nitero’s high-speed gigabit wireless communications technology (‘GiFi’) to market.
"We have seen significant interest from the global electronics industry in our 60 GHz solution to date," Patrick Kelly, CEO of Nitero said. "This substantial support by the Australian Government will allow us to continue to develop our product and bring the benefits of 60 GHz to consumers worldwide."
Intended for use in a wide range of devices, including personal computers, tablets and smart phones, the gigabit wireless chipset has been in development for five years. Led by NICTA and the Victoria Research Laboratory, the chipset could eventually replace HDMI cables and is potentially up to 10 times faster than current Wi-Fi chips, with speeds of up to 7 Gbps.
“NICTA continues to develop industry-leading technology, and the organization’s close collaboration between government, industry and academia gives Australian companies a head start when it comes to bringing their products to market,” said Victor Perton, Commissioner to the Americas for the State Government of Victoria, Australia. “By fostering this kind of collaboration, we have built build a thriving ICT industry in Victoria and established strong ties to global technology firms.”
By reducing the size and power consumption of the chipset, the Nitero chipset can be used to send and receive large amounts of data in wide range of applications. The technology’s very fast data synchronizations rates allow for rapid transfer of video bringing the vision for a wireless office closer to reality.
"NICTA had the foresight to see the importance of millimeter-wave gigabit wireless technology in 2004, and our success has put Australia on the global technology radar," said Professor Stan Skafidas, the leader of NICTA's gigabit wireless research. "I am grateful for the support the project has received from key players in the global semiconductor industry, such as Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, Anritsu and Agilent Technologies, as well as the support it received from the State Government of Victoria."
The AU$1.43 M grant comes from Commercialisation Australia, a government initiative to accelerate the business building process for Australian companies, entrepreneurs, researchers and inventors. The more than AU$13 M of new investment announced this week also included funding for an influenza test kit for pandemics, a bioherbicide to counter invasive weeds and a livestock pest control system. In total, Commercialisation Australia has invested AU$45 M in 115 projects.
