On Thursday, July 25, 2002, at 07:30 , Ken Chang wrote:
> let's do two things first, (A) separate the physical/data-link,
> network, and application layers, and then (B) find out what're
> the core problems that Bluetooth will solve.
Who cares ?
The ONLY thing that really matters is:
will I be able TO DO AWAY WITH THOSE DAMN CABLES ?
for doing away with cables is the *prime objective* here
anything else is a matter of engineering which can be sorted out while
the technology is being adopted. And if there is a significant problem
with packing so many different usage patterns all into one protocol,
well then eventually different modes of operation may evolve, for
example ...
- very low range/low bandwidth mode:
say maximum 50 cm; 20Kpbs; keyboards, mice, tablets. bar code readers etc
- low range/high bandwidth mode:
say max 1 meter; full bandwidth/burst data; CD drives, cameras, device
sync etc
- mid range/mid bandwidth mode:
say 1-2 meters; 200Kbps; modems, earphones, speakers, mics, headsets etc
long range/very low bandwidth mode:
full range; 300 - 2400 bps; any remote control application
Personally, I don't care whether BT can do that all today or not, or how
suitable it is to evolve there or not. All I know is that BT is opening
the door to get there and USB and Firewire are not, because they require
cabling. You got to start somewhere in order to give a platform to
companies to develop applications such as I had described and see how
well they do in the market and how best to do them. Once there is an
installed base and typical usage patterns are known, then the transport
technology can be further developed and optimised to best accommodate
those usage patterns.
Perhaps you are right and people will prefer to use cables to send
pictures from their camera to a printer or a desktop computer. Perhaps
they rather fiddle 30 seconds with the cabling in order to save 25
seconds transfer time on a faster interface. But then again, they may
embrace BT for all that remote control stuff I described, which cannot
be done without a wireless multi-access system and which doesn't require
bandwidth at all (how many bit/sec do you need to tell your TV to switch
channels ? -- It would seem anything above 10 or 20 bytes per second
will be plenty). If that turns out to be the typical usage, then the
further evolvement of the technology would be taking quite a different
path. You can only tell once there are applications actively being
tested in the market.
USB and Firewire may do for certain applications, particular those they
are being used for already, but they are totally inadequate for most of
the applications I have described. A jack in the armrest simply won't do
if I want to program my rice cooker or VCR.
regards
benjamin
Received on Thu Jul 25 14:23:52 2002