Wilocity

Wilocity was a fabless semiconductor company that specialized in the development of 60 GHz multi-gigabit wireless chipsets. Founded in March 2007 by a team of executives and engineers from Intel's Wi-Fi Centrino group—Tal Tamir, Dany Rettig, Gal Basson, and Jorge Myszne—the firm was established to pioneer next-generation wireless technology. Although headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the majority of its research and development operations were based in Caesarea, Israel.

The company's core business revolved around designing and producing chipsets based on the WiGig (Wireless Gigabit) standard, officially known as IEEE 802.11ad. This technology operates on the 60 GHz radio frequency band, enabling significantly faster data transfer speeds—up to 7 gigabits per second—than conventional Wi-Fi, which operates on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Wilocity's products were designed for short-range applications, positioning the technology as a wireless replacement for physical cables connecting devices like PCs, tablets, and smartphones to peripherals such as large displays, keyboards, and docking stations. This capability facilitated high-speed data syncing, wireless docking, and seamless streaming of high-definition content, like 4K video, with minimal lag. The business model was centered on selling these advanced chipsets to manufacturers of mobile computing platforms, consumer electronics, and peripherals. A significant milestone was the integration of its chipsets into Dell's Latitude Ultrabooks.

Wilocity played a foundational role in shaping the wireless industry's future by co-founding the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) and actively participating in the creation of the IEEE 802.11ad Task Group. The company's efforts were instrumental in establishing the industry standards for 60 GHz wireless communication. After years of partnership and investment from Qualcomm's Atheros division, which began in 2008, Wilocity was acquired by Qualcomm in July 2014 for a figure reported to be over $300 million. The acquisition was a strategic move by Qualcomm to integrate Wilocity's WiGig technology into its own product lines, particularly the Snapdragon mobile platforms, to create tri-band solutions that combined 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 60 GHz capabilities. Following the acquisition, former Wilocity CEO Tal Tamir transitioned to become a VP of product management at Qualcomm.

Keywords: Wilocity, Qualcomm, WiGig, 802.11ad, 60 GHz, wireless chipset, fabless semiconductor, multi-gigabit wireless, wireless docking, tri-band Wi-Fi, Tal Tamir, Jorge Myszne, Atheros, wireless bus extension, mobile computing, consumer electronics, high-speed data transfer, Snapdragon, Dell, Wireless Gigabit Alliance