International electronics company AMD has bought the Australian technology company Nitero, a pioneer in millimetre wave solutions capable of enabling future generations of wireless Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headsets.
Nitero was born out of technology developed by the University of Melbourne and NICTA (now Data61). The team created the world’s first completely integrated 60GHz transceiver on CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) – the technology behind silicon chips. The result was a single chip wireless system that can deliver 5Gbps data rate at cost of approximately $1, whilst being only 5mm x 5mm in size.
The technology has the potential to enable multi-gigabit transmit performance with low latency in room-scale VR environments. The beamforming characteristics solve the requirement for line-of-sight associated with traditional high-frequency mm-wave systems, potentially eliminating wired VR headsets and enabling users to become more easily immersed in virtual and augmented worlds.
“Unwieldly headset cables remain a significant barrier to drive widespread adoption of VR,” said Mark Papermaster, AMD chief technology officer and senior vice president.
“Our newly acquired wireless VR technology is focused on solving this challenge, and is another example of AMD making long-term technology investments to develop high-performance computing and graphics technologies that can create more immersive computing experiences.”
Nitero co-founder and CEO Pat Kelly will join AMD as corporate vice president, Wireless IP while another co-founder Professor Stan Skafidas from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne is reportedly set to head up AMD’s operations in Australia.
“Our world class engineering team has been focused on solving the difficult problem of building wireless VR technologies that can be integrated into next-generation headsets,” said Kelly.
“We are excited to play a role in furthering AMD’s long-term technology vision.”
The technology and products based on the Nitero technology were the recipient of multiple industry awards including the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show Innovation award.
[Nitero co-founder Professor Stan Skafidas. Photo: University of Melbourne]
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