On Monday, Marvell Technology Group became the second Wi-Fi silicon vendor to announce a deal with WiGig specialist Wilocity, following an announcement earlier this year by Qualcomm Atheros. Wilocity says it has still more relationships that it's not allowed to disclose.

WiGig as a fast, short-range wireless technology backed by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, which included Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, Wilocity and several other wireless players. It's designed to hit real-world speeds of 2Gbps (bits per second) or more by using a fat band of unlicensed spectrum around 60GHz, far higher than the frequencies used by today's Wi-Fi. Using those high frequencies delivers more speed but also limits WiGig's ability to penetrate walls, so it's not intended as a replacement for Wi-Fi.

The technical complexity of wireless networking at 60GHz has helped push WiGig's mainstream debut beyond the Alliance's original forecast of 2010, said Mark Grodzinsky, Wilocity's vice president of marketing. WiGig will be based on the emerging IEEE 802.11ad standard, which is on track for approval by the end of this year and should not face any more significant changes, he said.

Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi Alliance, which certifies products for today's Wi-Fi technologies, said it is also planning to certify products based on 802.11ad. Its certification program won't start before next year, and the group doesn't plan to call 60GHz products Wi-Fi. It reserves that name for gear that uses the two traditional Wi-Fi bands.

Both Marvell and Atheros plan to use WiGig in chipsets they will position as tri-band, allowing for use in Wi-Fi's 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands as well as the 60GHz range. Broadcom has also said it plans 802.11ad products. Ultimately, users should be able to access wireless LANs at various speeds and ranges depending on where they are, with the fast WiGig option available within rooms.