Last week, Intel announced that it has developed chip technology designed to support current Wi-Fi standards as well as projected ones.
Intel unveiled a prototype of an all-CMOS direct conversion dual-band radio transceiver capable of supporting every current Wi-Fi standard (802.11a, b and g), as well as the projected requirements of 802.11n.
“This system-in-a-package design uses more low-voltage circuitry than we’ve ever used in the past, which means we can integrate it and make it lower cost while operating at lower voltages and providing longer battery life,” said the director of Intel’s Communications Circuits Research Lab, Krishnamurthy Soumyanath.
“The variable bandwidth of this solution extends capabilities beyond today’s 20 MHz to 100 MHz, and is expected to support data rates higher than 100 megabits per second that should allow people to enjoy multiple high-quality video streams concurrently,” added Soumyanath.
Each device currently uses a customized radio to connect to a particular network, such as a WLAN based on Wi-Fi technology.
As Intel described in a press release, a different device might use a radio developed for a wireless wide area network or WWAN. In the next few years, the company expects mobile devices to contain several different radios so they can utilize many different wireless communication networks.
Intel’s research points toward a time in the future when one device will use “smart” antenna systems and a reconfigurable CMOS radio on a single device making the radio more power efficient, smaller and lower cost. The goal being pursued is the ability to connect to any network, anytime, anywhere on any device.
“By creating this capability in CMOS, Intel will have the option of integrating wireless capabilities into a wide variety of our future chips,” said Soumyanath.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
