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Intel Putting Wi-Fi into Future Chipsets
Ridgelift writes "Wired's got the story on Intel's plan to incorporate Wi-Fi into the motherboard chipset. "The chipset, however, will not include an actual Wi-Fi radio, so users will still need a wireless add-on card. Intel has said it eventually intends build a Wi-Fi radio into its microprocessors." This would make setting up a wireless network a lot simpler."
It's all very well putting more peripherals onto processors but with the shrinking feature sizes and an increase in cross talk is placing a powerful 2.4GHz source on die really a good idea? You would have to shorten long lines and slow down the processor or suffer random errors. Doesn't inspire me with confidence.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
This is a lot like Microsoft's business plan, but at the hardware level. It leaves ISV's out of the loop. "Centrino" was perhaps the most serious example of this that I've seen.
This would make setting up a wireless network a lot simpler.
Woah there, whats so hard with the way its setup now? pcmcia is a matter of plug and go, pci is a matter of modprobe if that.. theres nothing hard about wifi... its a nic with a wireless medium.. thats all.
Now if intel had some new fangled wep replacement then that would make things simple, no more mac rules on my fw would be nice.. which is unlikely.
moo
The chipset, however, will not include an actual Wi-Fi radio, so users will still need a wireless add-on card. Intel has said it eventually intends build a Wi-Fi radio into its microprocessors.
Why put in a chipset without a radio? Maybe one could argue an attempt to get market share by making their add-on card cheaper than the others (just radio, no chipset), but this card will have a more limited market, since it wouldn't be compatible with older or non-intel mobos.
Now if the were to put a software radio on board, *that* would be cool! Think of upgrading to future standards with just a flash rom upgrade...
I don't follow tech too closely but this sounds like those worthless AMR slots or whatever they were called - the ones that were like having a built-in sound card or modem (in the sense that the board cost more and had less space available) except didn't actually do anything...?
I think that if an admin of a corporate network had several thousand wireless clients, a simple airsnort would compromise thousands of computers, without requiring the packet sniffer actually access any sort of ethernet cabling.
This could have a grave impact on the sales of wireless-based chipsets in the corporate market.
I will now redundantly add my name to the end of my post. You know, in case you forgot me or something.
So when Big Brother wants to know what you're up to, they don't need you to be online to the public internet. How convenient. The "trusted" BIOS can always let them bypass your firewall, as the BIOS is going to handle the net connection too.
Trusted Computing FAQ | Free Dawit Isaak!
I sincerely hope they're going to have these things configured in one of the following manners:
1. Disable the Wi-Fi by default
2. If not disabled, seed the encryption key with a pseudorandom number before the user specifically configures it.
You don't want new computers forming unintended bridges or access points between the untrusted network/airspace and your trusted internal network between when they're first powered up and when the overworked sysadmin has a chance to configure them properly. So much for your company's firewalls having a chance to do their job.
Wi-Fi without a radio? Sounds kinda like a soundcard without a DAC or a videocard without a RAMDAC. What's the point of including functionality while not including necessary pieces except, perhaps, to rachet up the marketingspeek and pressure out other manufacturers?
There was Cowboy Neal at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land.
The FCC DOES require that ISM band consumer devices opearate within specifications. They are certified for a given antenna configuration, among other things. Even the anntenna connectors are non-standard, for this very reason (so the consumer doesn't think you are supposed to hook it up to an amp).
It's nto that you aren't allowed to modify it legally, of course you are, as long as you operate within spec... but that the company has to make it so.
It's not a big stretch for them to feel releasing driver code is a risk, as anyone who gets it from them could easily use it to operate outside of spec.
802.11a/b/g on board would be nice.. but, I would really like to see more motherboards coming with bluetooth onboard. This would seem to make sense with things like keyboard, mice, headsets, and cellphones that are bluetooth enabled coming to market.
Oh, yes, it's Intel's fault if 20 of their employees can make a product better suited to the market than 10,000 other peoples' efforts.
By the same token, buses and trains and taxis have all taken jobs away from the good hard-working people with horse-drawn taxis. And we really should go back to rooms full of seamstresses making clothing by hand, like before those evil industrial looms were created. Oh, and the cotton for the clothes (synthetics put farmers out of work) should be picked by immigrant laborers.
It's not society's obligation to prop up inefficient methods of production; quite the contrary. There's a word us old-timers use sometimes. It's called "progress." Might want to study it.
Get off my launchpad!
How freaking simple can it be now?
1) Insert Airport Extreme Card into PowerBook 12"
2) Turn on PowerBook 12" 3) Select Network from Airport menu & Enter WEP if needed
4) Wirelessly communicat
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I'm no Wi-Fi expert, but couldn't a wi-fi-enabled cpu transmit data without your permission?
Unique cpu ids? Treacherous Computing Group data?
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However intel have publicly stated that they would have linux support for their centrino chipset...
(which the pro wireless 2100 is part off)
That turned out to be one big lie.
Jeroen
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