Intel Extends Wireless Kick with ‘Ultra’ Mobile Device, WiMAX, 802.11n Advances
SAN FRANCISCO -- “Ultra mobile PCs” capable of full Web displays -- unlike today’s major handhelds -- will reach the market this month, said Intel Exec. Vp Sean Maloney. Speaking at the Intel Developer Conference here late Tues., Maloney said he expects a “tremendous wave of experimentation in the next year and a half to 2 years” in the category, with a wide array of sizes and configurations, as with mobile handsets.
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A “huge effort under way to shrink down that PC architecture” has arisen because software and codecs “change too rapidly for a static device to keep up” -- so cellphones and PDAs can’t display a good deal of Web content, Maloney said. The new category evidently involves Microsoft’s “Origami” project, the topic of much buzz stirred by the firm in recent days. Details are expected today (Thurs.) at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany.
What Intel billed as the first U.S. demonstration of mobile WiMAX highlighted Maloney’s keynote. A firm employee said he got “upwards of 2 megabits per second” connectivity tooling around San Francisco on a motor scooter. Mobile WiMAX cards for the 2.3-2.5 GHz band will be available 2nd half 2006, Maloney said. He also promised the first single- chip multiband Wi-Fi and WiMAX radio, codenamed Ofer, and called it the first step to merging the technologies. Maloney said there had been “a clear coalescing” internationally around WiMAX use in the 2.3-2.5, 3.5 and 5 GHz frequencies, so “it looks likely the planet is going to be covered using those three radio bands.”
“We're moving well toward standardization” of IEEE 802.11n wireless technology, key to enabling transfers of HD video around residences, Maloney said. He demonstrated Intel’s next radio product, the Kedron wireless LAN adapter for 802.11n.
Intel’s Viiv entertainment technology is incorporated into 110 CE and PC designs, a tally that will hit 250 this year, said Intel Digital Home Group Vp Donald MacDonald. Its blend of high performance and low power is the foundation for a “new breed of industrial design,” he said. The “Golden Gate” Viiv concept PC runs cooler sitting idle after 15 min. on than a child’s night light and far cooler than a DVD player, though hotter than a game console, MacDonald said; the PC tested a bit quieter than a DVD player and much quieter than the game console. He called these “fabulous thermals, fabulous acoustics” in the Viiv. In less than 4 min., an Intel colleague on stage set up a Viiv PC and a secure wireless network to stream premium content to a display using only a remote.
MacDonald showed off a hybrid 802.11n/HomePlug device to link home wired and wireless connections. He called HomePlug, with more than 4.5 million cumulative unit shipments, “really consumer friendly and it’s with us today.” MacDonald showed a “Salt Creek” concept platform PC featuring HDMI support, 2 TV tuners and a buttonless remote said to replace 7 clicks with a few voice commands. Initially, that rig failed a few times; MacDonald blamed noise in the auditorium. “This is early technology,” he said.
MacDonald managed a demo in which one gamer sat haplessly as another strafed his jet before it could take off. The aim was to show how much faster a game loaded on a Pentium Processor Extreme Edition PC with an unspecified forthcoming “secret sauce” is than on one without it. The slower unit offered “state of the art gaming” at 90 frames per second, but the other got 111, MacDonald said: “This will mean a new level of performance that gamers will be very impressed with.” He ran through a scene in which he swiped a movie poster with a smartphone, triggering it to load the phone with a trailer and a URL for the film, allowing him to buy and download the movie online by zapping a PC with the phone. MacDonald said this combination, using Near Field Communication technology, has great potential for e-commerce.