Intel superfast Wi-Fi faces Microsoft Vista overload

ALWAYS AN avid fan of Wi-Fi, Intel was dead keen to promote the forthcoming IEEE 802.11n standard at IDF. Chiefly because its adoption will lead to seriously enhanced data rates over the LAN.

Intel claimed that it will build an 802.11n capability into the forthcoming version of its Wi-Fi/WiMax chipset which is code-named Kedron. This will lead to a five time improvement over its previous offering.

More importantly Kedron will represent a thirty-fold increase over the kind of data throughputs over the LAN compared to its 2003 offering. Hence it is described by some observers as 'superfast Wi-Fi'.

To ensure that its 802.11n capable chipset will interwork with other 802.11n products out of the box, Intel is doing co-operative testing with four major LAN networking suppliers: - Netgear; D-Link; Linksys; and Buffalo.

Eventually Intel hopes to offer the Ofer-R, a chipset that will offer the world's first combined Wi-Fi and WiMax radio chipset by 2008.

Intel's Dadi Perlmutter was lucky to have escaped questions about Kedron during the IDF mobility keynote.

He very definitely floundered when asked what Intel might do about the fact that Windows Vista places a heavy load on a Centrino notebook's power performance - just when Intel and its rivals are claiming to have decreased power consumption amongst laptops.

Perlmutter appeared to suggest that he hoped Microsoft would overcome the currently power-hungry nature of Vista through its regular software updates programme. µ