Airgo Networks have just announced a new WiFi chip that boasts speeds up to 240 Mbps, that is over 2 times as fast as standard Ethernet and 5 times more speedy than existing WiFi solutions. It uses MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple Output) technology which basically means it has multiple antennas for both sending and receiving.

As with existing Wifi solutions actual throughput is significantly less than the maximum speed, but even running at 50% it will still be significantly faster than a 100 Mbps wired network.

The main markets for this technology will be both commercial and the home technophiles. In an office environment it will be possible to easily and cheaply expand an existing network without the inconvenience and expense of laying additional cabling.

The possibilities for the home user are even more exciting. In this digital age with media centre PCs, massive MP3 collections and digital cameras being the norm, home networks are becoming more and more wide spread. In the past only the most geeky of home users would go through the hassle of drilling walls and laying CAT5 cabling around the home (been there done that ) but with WiFi making it as easy to setup a network as it is to program a video and offering speeds more than adequate for streaming video I can see the home network market really taking off.

Aigo have not published much information on their 240 Mbps Wifi yet but you can find a bit more info on their site.