Nintendo has turned to Motorola to help it add wireless networking to its GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Advance SP handheld consoles, the company said today.

Motorola's contribution is the WLAN chipset that will sit inside plug-in network adaptors Nintendo plans to offer for both consoles during the first half of next year.

The chipset supports communications in the 2.4GHz spectrum, but uses the TDMA (time-division multiple access) protocol rather than 802.11 or Bluetooth.

Whatever type of network is used, the adaptors will work with upcoming multi-player titles Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen.

Nintendo has a window of opportunity before the Q4 2004 launch of Sony's PlayStation Portable, which puts 802.11 networking at the heart of its feature set. In the meantime, the game console pioneer will face stiff competition from Nokia's N-Gage console-cum-phone, which will ship in Europe next month before arriving in the Far East later. ®

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