The 1394 Trade Association has approved a specification which would allow the development of wireless Firewire devices.
The new Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) for IEEE 1394 over IEEE 802.15.3 was approved Monday. In a statement, the trade association said: The PAL is designed as a standard convergence layer between the 802.15.3 MAC and applications developed for wired 1394. It builds upon the 1394 infrastructure--for example, data formats, connection-management schemes, and time synchronization procedures--and takes advantage of the excellent quality of service available in 802.15.3.
Examples of new products with the new specification include wireless connections to DVD players and hard drives from set top boxes. Prototype products are expected before the end of the year.
Apple has been an early adopter of Firewire, so adoption of this technology could be expected.
