NICTA wins international innovation award

The world-first Gigabit Wireless (GiFi) chip developed by NICTA, Australia’s ICT Research Centre, has won the Innovic Next Big Thing Award for Innovation Excellence. The entry was one of 24 finalists selected from hundreds of applications from 18 different countries.

The first public demonstration of a prototype system using the 60 GHz gigabit wireless (GiFi) chip technology was held in February 2009.

Joss Evans, CEO of Innovic, the not-for-profit organisation that runs the international award, said the GiFi technology prevailed due to its high level of innovation: “The winners this year represent the best of the best new Australian and international innovations in the vital areas of medicine, water, recycling, communications and technology.”

The GiFi chip delivers short-range multi-gigabit data transfer in an indoor environment. It is a complete wireless system on a single integrated circuit that provides around 10 times the bandwidth at one-tenth the cost of existing technologies.

“Winning this award is great news for NICTA and for our talented Gigabit Wireless project team and signals a promising future for ICT innovation in Australia,” said NICTA’s Acting CEO Dr Phil Robertson.