Whizzy technology is nice, but it's the application of technology that makes the world go ' round. So to check out the technologies, I turned to actual retail products. This article is not really intended as a full review of any of the products that I tested - I intend to do that later for at least some of them. But I've entered all of them into our Product Guide database (which you can access via the links below), so you can at least compare their specs and features.

In the Super G / XR corner are NETGEAR's newly-spawned "Double 108Mbps" products - the WGU624 router and WG511U CardBus card. I chose these rather than NETGEAR's WGT624 and WG511T 108Mbps router and CardBus card because I wanted to be sure that I was testing something with the latest and greatest Atheros technology.

Both products are actually dual-band 802.11a/b/g products incorporating Atheros Super G and Super AG technology with Adaptive Radio (AR) and eXtended Range (XR). Note that Atheros' Super-G / XR technology is currently the only extended-range technology available in products from multiple vendors.

Figure 1: NETGEAR WGU624 Double 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router
Figure 2: NETGEAR WG511U Double 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card

The only currently-available representitives of Airgo's True MIMO technology are Belkin's "Pre-N" products - the F5D8230-4 Wireless Pre-N Router and F5D8010 Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network card.

Figure 3: Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router
Figure 4: Belkin Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card

ParkerVision's D2D Technology is also sole-sourced - from ParkerVision itself. Although D2D makes no speed-enhancement claims, and supports only 802.11b's lower 11Mbps maximum data rate, I included it in the test since 802.11b is just fine for many applications. So, I checked out the WR1500 4-port Wireless DSL/Cable Router and WLAN1500 PC Card LAN Adapter.

Figure 5: ParkerVision WR1500 4-port Wireless DSL/Cable Router
Figure 6: ParkerVision WLAN1500 PC Card LAN Adapter