Miracast is a technology we may hear a lot about soon, as the specification and an associated certification program are due to be ratified in the coming months. Miracast is a wireless video and audio streaming standard, much like Intel's WiDi and Apple's AirPlay, however, unlike these two proprietary technologies, is an open standard, formed by the WiFi Alliance and so, likely to gain mass-market appeal.
In the run-up to the release of the new standard, NVIDIA has officially announced its full backing and will be offering a fully optimised software stack for its Tegra 3 processor line-up, allowing Tegra devices to make full use of the SoC's 4+1 core offering to provide a high-performance, low-latency stream.
NVIDIA is just one of many to have now signed up to the new standard, with Marvell, Texas Instruments and Broadcom already on-board, with each firm approaching their respective OEMs to push for integration in the latest devices. It'll perhaps be a while before TV manufacturers catch on, however, and so, it's hoped that there will be intermediary products to extend functionality to existing sets.
Miracast is based on Wi-Fi Direct technology, which can be implemented on any device featuring modern wireless capabilities, without the need for a wireless network. The WiFi Alliance claims that the technology is inherently low-latency and efficient, as it's direct and, with less consideration to multiple MAC addresses reducing overhead.
