Finally, it seems the game changer for the power consumption heavy 802.11a/b/g client. Maybe this also changes the game for Zigbee to to certain extent. Sensor networks to leverage enterprise WLAN as the backbone, just seems that the ROI is there and it makes sense. Especially, if you can extend to a 10 year battery life.
GainSpan brings Ultra-low-power Wi-Fi to sensors and embedded applications. The company's semiconductor solutions break new ground in Wi-Fi applications by enabling years of battery life for
Wi-Fi sensors and other devices.
In September of 2006, a core team of engineers and thought leaders spun off from Intel Corporation to form GainSpan. The vision was simple… enable and accelerate the adoption of new wireless usage models for sensor network applications using an existing widely deployed standard technology.
The challenge was daunting… while wireless sensor networks have seen steady growth over the past few years, their market potential has, in fact, been hindered by power consumption issues and lack of mature standards based solutions.
The solution was innovative… new Wi-Fi semiconductor and software solutions that enable sensors and other devices to run up to 10 years on a single AA battery. This allows users to leverage the global Wi-Fi infrastructure, existing tools and knowledge investments, for new applications such as temperature monitoring for energy management, condition monitoring of industrial equipment in manufacturing plants or streetlights in metro areas.
GainSpan's mission is to continue to innovate around these basic tenets to create a broad range of semiconductor solutions that can improve usage capabilities worldwide and enable deployment of products that leverage the pervasiveness of Wi-Fi.
