Intel intros Wireless N as Vista dawns

CHIP FIRM Intel said it launched Wireless N technology which it claimed will give five times the performance and twice the wireless range and save an hour of battery life.

But it pointed out these are based on theoretical bandwidth maximums based on draft N specs with two spatial streams - so don't get over excited yet.

The announcement comes as part of the draft 802.11n spec and Intel said it worked with Belkin, Netgear, D-Link and others to help better compatibility and performance.

Another announcement today is a branding called "Connect with Centrino", complete with a logo.

The N spec is being bundled with notebooks from Acer, Asus, Gateway and Toshiba which come with Microsoft Vista. So we'd better all hope that the performance of the chips is good enough to keep up with 'ole Vista. µ