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Intel débuts three-in-one radio chip
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 14th December 2007
No need for wires - you can switch between WiFi, to WiMAX and still watch TV all on a single chip!
The three-in-one chip could theoretically be used to access your WiFi network at home; switched to WiMAX for when you're out on the road (pending anyone actually bothering to create a nation-wide WiMAX network for you to use, of course); and turned to the DVB-H mode when you fancy a bit of on-the-go digital TV.
Jeff Hoffman, system architect for Intel's Wireless Communication Labs, makes the reasonable point that “there are too many radios” in modern hand-held devices. With each chip costing money to make and taking up valuable space and power there's certainly something to be said for integrating as much as possible on to combined-purpose chips.
The chip will consume approximately 79mW of power when in use, which is a significant energy saving compared to having two or three different radio chips in use at once. It's a shame that the same can't be said for size: at 24mm² the chip takes up approximately equal space to individual ASICs for each function.
While certainly buzz-word compliant, it's interesting that Intel has made the choice to go for broke and support an as-yet largely unadopted technology with WiMAX; I would imagine that most users would have preferred a Wifi/Bluetooth/DVB-H all-in-one chip. That said, it's perfectly possible that the gamble will pay off should various planned large-scale WiMAX rollouts ever materialise.
Still hoping for the promised all-in-one PDA with access-everything-everywhere capability? Give us your thoughts via the forums.
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Comments (7)Stats: 0.111 seconds
Blind hope?
Where I work we certainly get a lot more requests for 3G cards/dongles than even inquiries about WiMAX, if we start seeing it in the laptops we ship to customers that's just going to confuse them even more, which means (selfishly) I'll have to deal with more people phoning in almost in tears (And that has actually happened to me before now).
This sounds really great, but with only a "maximum 30-mile radius" per tower, it's going to have to offer much more in speed/versatility before anyone will even think about using it in mobile devices that support/will support 3G. I think it's a great idea, but with as long as this has been talked about, I don't think it has much of a chance unless it is implemented sometime soon.....
With the increase in wireless speeds over the past few years, I can only say that I want this technology to become reality. I really hate wires. I need to read more about its (potential) security threats though.....
Now I heard clear wire is going to work with the wimax chip so thats awesome, still a new company but they are well established in Cali so far and spreading eastward, living in Cali, it could come in handy.