News & Events
Harris and Aironet Provide Wireless Network Access at GartnerGroup Conference
Wireless network covers exhibit hall and analyst workrooms
SAN DIEGO, CA, April 13, 1999 — Harris Semiconductor and Aironet announced that successful demonstrations of wireless networking were conducted earlier this month for attendees of the GartnerGroup’s Spring Symposium/ITxpo ‘99 and Dataquest Predicts ‘99 held in San Diego, California. More than 3,000 senior-level IT and MIS professionals and high tech marketing and sales personnel attended the joint conferences. The Symposiums, both sponsored by GartnerGroup, focused on emerging strategies for MIS professionals and their ramification on sales and marketing.
SAN DIEGO, CA, April 13, 1999 Harris Semiconductor and Aironet announced that successful demonstrations of wireless networking were conducted earlier this month for attendees of the GartnerGroups Spring Symposium/ITxpo 99 and Dataquest Predicts 99 held in San Diego, California. More than 3,000 senior-level IT and MIS professionals and high tech marketing and sales personnel attended the joint conferences. The Symposiums, both sponsored by GartnerGroup, focused on emerging strategies for MIS professionals and their ramification on sales and marketing.
In total, 20 GartnerGroup presenters were outfitted with laptop PCs converted for wireless use. Fifteen analysts at the Spring Symposium were able to access GartnerGroups network at Ethernet speeds throughout the San Diego Convention Center for the duration of the conference. Similarly, five "Predicts 99" analysts were wireless-enabled throughout the fourth floor of the San Diego Hyatt.
Analysts had an Aironet wireless networking card installed in their laptop PCs to provide wireless access to e-mail, networked printers and Gartners Novell network located at its headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Wireless access was provided throughout the entire San Diego Convention Center exhibit hall and work suites housed on the mezzanine level of the convention center and the fourth floor of the San Diego Hyatt. Cell phones and other wireless products were also operated simultaneously, without interference.
"These demonstrations give an indication of the capabilities of wireless networking and the ease with which such networks can be installed and activated," said Ron Van Dell, vice president and general manager of Harris Semiconductors Communications Product Business. "The potential to provide wireless access to networks at Ethernet speed proves this technology to be an excellent augmentation to current networks, and has tremendous potential for the future of remote access."
Aironet WLAN Products Used
Aironets 4800 Series equipment was used in the wireless network. Several Aironet AP4800 Turbo DS Access Points (APs) were installed in the San Diego Convention Center and Hyatt. These APs transfer video, voice and data at speeds comparable to wired networks. Each AP4800 provides 11 megabits-per-second coverage for an area up to 30,000 square feet. Each GartnerGroup laptop was equipped with an Aironet PC4800 Turbo DS Wireless LAN Adapter, a wireless network interface card (NIC) for standard laptop computers or other devices equipped with PC Card slots.
"We were quite pleased to participate in these demonstrations," said Eric Erickson, vice president of marketing for Aironet. "We thought this opportunity to display wireless capabilities was extremely rewarding. Delivering data at Ethernet-equivalent speed is a first in the wireless industry, and is especially appropriate at conferences devoted to trends in IT. Our products combine Aironets awarding winning and patented radio design with Harris PRISM 802.11 baseband processor to achieve industry-leading high-speed performance, and Aironet is the first wireless LAN manufacturer to deliver FCC approved 11Mbps CCK products."
About Harris PRISM Technology
Harris recently introduced its next generation PRISM II chip set that provides 11Mbps performance using the CCK modulation technique adopted by the IEEE 802.11. The most important advances in PRISM II over the original PRISM chip set and PRISM Reference Design are better performance, higher integration, lower power consumption and longer range. Many of PRISM IIs performance and feature-set improvements come from the new IC designs developed by Harris engineers; other improvements come from the use of SiGe process technology for three of the four new chips.
"Widespread adoption of WLANs across the consumer, SOHO and enterprise markets is contingent upon the availability of low cost, interoperable and high speed solutions," said Van Dell. "PRISM II will allow leading OEMs such as Aironet to deliver on all of these requirements, breaking new ground in the adoption of wireless to mainstream consumer and enterprise applications. We are proud to have teamed with Aironet in demonstrating WLAN technology for the GartnerGroup, and were gratified to hear that it was such a success."
About the GartnerGroup Conferences
The joint conferences served to introduce IT trends to two target audiences. All attendees had access to the exhibit hall of the San Diego Convention Center. The "Spring Symposium/ITxpo 99" explored the future of IT and strategies for MIS professionals. The sister-conference "Dataquest Predicts 99" examined new technologies impact on products and ramifications on sales and marketing. Among technologies discussed, was the rapidly growing remote access environment. GartnerGroup analysts predict that by 2004, more than two-thirds of sales and supply chain transactions between enterprises and their suppliers and between customers and clients will be performed using remote access and Internet technologies. As a result, the amount of daily business transactions controlled by "road warriors" and telecommuters will reach a point where they will be fully entwined and critically important to the revenue growth of the company.
"The future of remote access is being driven by a convergence of factors, such as government legislation to promote telecommuting and the race of telephone and cable companies to provide high-speed access to households," said Bob Egan, research director for the GartnerGroup. "Advances in wireless communication, cellular phones and network computing are also contributing factors that support the growth of remote access."
About Aironet
Aironet is a worldwide leader in the Wireless LAN industry with the largest installed base of local area wireless data communication systems in more than 60 countries. The company designs, manufactures and markets the industrys broadest and most complete selection of Wireless LAN solutions including products that support 2.4GHz frequency hopping (FH) and direct sequence (DS) and 900MHz DS spread spectrum technologies. The company is based in Fairlawn, OH, and is a subsidiary of Telxon Corporation (Nasdaq-NNM: TLXN). The World Wide Web site address is http://www.aironet.com.
About Harris
Harris Corporation's Semiconductor sector manufactures discrete semiconductors and integrated circuits. Product development efforts are focused on innovative "next level solutions" for the communications and power markets. The companys broad portfolio of products serves many market segments automotive, industrial, computing, wireless networking, telecommunications, signal processing, PC multimedia, consumer electronics, and space/defense. World Wide Web site: http://www.semi.harris.com.
