Now that the 802.11g standard has been officially approved, PC manufacturers are starting to integrate the wireless networking technology into more notebook computers.
Fujitsu and Gateway are the latest to offer laptops with built-in 802.11g. The companies said Wednesday that they would offer notebooks using Broadcom‘s 54g mini-PCI cards. 54g is Broadcom’s brand name for 802.11g. The standard, which was ratified earlier this month, extends the data rate of the 802.11b standard from 11Mbps to 54Mbps, and is intended to be backwards compatible with earlier 802.11b products.
Fujitsu said it would offer 54g as an upgrade to several LifeBook notebooks, including the N series, E4000D, P5000D, S2000 and S6000D, while Gateway is offering it as a $30 option on its 450 and 600 notebook lines, as well as with several configurations of the 400 line. Gateway said 11g would be available as an option on its entire line by the end of July.
Products based on Broadcom’s 54g account for 93 percent of all 802.11g equipment sold in the United States, according to the NPD Group. Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom was one of the first companies to supply wireless LAN chipsets based on the draft of the 802.11g specification.
Broadcom will be showing off its 54g technology at this week’s 802.11 Planet Conference
& Expo, June 25 – 27, 2003 at the World Trade Center Boston in Boston, Mass.