Sam Oliver
With Apple rumored to be interested in releasing new Macs with superfast 802.11ac wireless connectivity this year, a new job listing by the company advertises a position for engineers experienced with Gigabit Wi-Fi.
The mention of 802.11ac comes from a new job posting listed by the company on Sunday, first highlighted by AppleBitch. The role of "System Test Engineer" will be based at Apple's corporate Campus in Cupertino, Calif., and focuses on Wi-Fi connectivity.
In the job listing, Apple notes that the position requires "technical knowledge" of the Wi-Fi standard in all forms, including the next-generation 802.11ac. The ideal candidate will include "experience on consumer-facing hardware/software products."
The new job posting comes only days after a rumor surfaced claiming that Apple plans to add Gigabit Wi-Fi to its 2013 Mac lineup. The so-called "5G Wi-Fi" standard offers up to 1.3Gbps data transfers with a three-antenna design.
Current Macs and other Apple devices feature 802.11n networking, the current industry standard for Wi-Fi. That allows transfers of up to 450Mbps with three antennas — a feat that 802.11ac can accomplish with just one antenna.
Apple is rumored to have struck a deal with Broadcom to potentially debut 802.11ac in this year's Macs. The Broadcom chips reportedly remain in development and are not yet available to use.
Apple has a history of being on the cutting edge with Wi-Fi — it was among the first to bring Wi-Fi to the masses in 1999, while Apple secretly included support for the "Draft-N" specification in some of its devices in 2006 before the 802.11n standard was officially ratified.
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35 Comments
I wonder how many years it will be before we look back and 'remember' when there was a concept of band width or any form of limit on what we can send or receive?
I wonder how many years it will be before we look back and 'remember' when there was a concept of band width or any form of limit on what we can send or receive?
If the telecoms have their way?
Millennia.
I am curious how this line in the job description "Technical knowledge of WiFi (802.11a,b,g, ac) and Ethernet network environments", turns into the headline "802.11ac Gigabit Wi-Fi experts sought by Apple"? Judging by the listing, 802.11ac knowledge is no more important than any of the other requirements they listed. Gotta get those clicks? -kpluck
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/155347/802-11ac-gigabit-wi-fi-experts-sought-by-apple#post_2255253"] If the telecoms have their way? Millennia. [/quote] I wasn't thinking about that aspect, rather technologically speaking. It maybe in Scandinavia not here for the reasons you give of course. I was thinking as in the way we don't watch conventional TV and think about how much data is coming down that wire or if it will stutter ... one day there will simply be so much available band width it will be like traditional TV to a user in those terms. Perhaps that can only happen when we get better and more spectra made available.
[quote name="digitalclips" url="/t/155347/802-11ac-gigabit-wi-fi-experts-sought-by-apple#post_2255260"] I wasn't thinking about that aspect, rather technologically speaking. It maybe in Scandinavia not here for the reasons you give of course. I was thinking as in the way we don't watch conventional TV and think about how much data is coming down that wire or if it will stutter ... one day there will simply be so much available band width it will be like traditional TV to a user in those terms. Perhaps that can only happen when we get better and more spectra made available.[/quote] Even TV bandwidth is constrained. VHF is 30 to 300MHz, and if I remember correctly, each channel has a 6MHz band. The only way we have so many channels now is digital and IP. I can't see how there will ever be too much bandwidth. If we get to a point where the speed is so fast we aren't utilizing it we'll likely always find ways to use it. We don't even have 4K video at 48fps to our homes yet.