Dell releases first wireless ultrabook docking station

Computerworld - Dell today announced the availability of the Dell Wireless Dock, the industry's first docking station based on the multi-gigabit Tri-Band Wi-Fi standard (WiGig).The new wireless docking station is currently compatible with Dell's Latitude 6430u Ultrabook and sells for $249.

"We are proud to introduce the Dell Wireless Dock, the industry's first and only WiGig dock that is the result of a five-year-long leadership effort. WiGig represents a new era in wireless connectivity and a shift in the way enterprises and consumers will experience connectivity and interact with their devices in the future," Kirk Schell, vice president of Dell's commercial PC group, said in a statement.

Dell's WiGig Wireless Docking Station

The new WiGig standard can offer speeds of up to 10 times that of today's fastest WiFi networks.

At last month's CES, Wilocity, a fabless semiconductor maker, and Qualcomm announced the first multi-gigabit wireless chipset reference architecture based on the new WiGig 60GHz and IEEE 802.11ad standards for high-speed downloads, docking and networking.

Wilocity and Qualcom's design delivers tri-band Wi-Fi, which allows consumers to connect to 60GHz-enabled devices, docks, displays and storage at multi-gigabit speeds, while maintaining enterprise-wide or home coverage using 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi.

Dell's docking station is aimed at offices, meeting rooms and classrooms because it offers fast, simple connectivity to displays, projectors, networks, speakers and other peripherals.

Dell said the docking station has the potential to offer added functionality, such as wireless backups, synchronization and file transfers between computers and handheld devices.

Based on the IEEE 802.11 standard specification for long-term stability, WiGig offers the same level of security and manageability as today's best WLAN technologies, Dell stated.

The new dock supports up to two external displays with both DisplayPort and HDMI connectivity, and it features peripheral connectivity via three USB 3.0 ports and offers voice over IP connectivity via a front audio in/out port at speeds of up to 4.6Gbps.

The Dell Wireless Dock can also be managed with the updated Dell ControlPoint Connection Manager, which now includes both WiGig and Wireless LAN settings.

An adapter is available for VGA-based hardware and an Ethernet connector is designed to ensure dedicated, stable bandwidth for fast data transfers and efficient communication with remote locations.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at  @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed . His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

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