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."

Comments

Is wifi on CPU a good idea?

[brejc8]

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.

Really?

[odyrithm]

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.

What's the point?

[bobthemuse]

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...

Unintentional network compromises through bridging

[AgTiger]

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.

Bluetooth?

[ybmug]

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.

Re:Why do companies expand into other est business

[Artifex]

I think it's silly how Intel is now embracing a trend to include features already provided by another market. Intel will probalby do this witout adding more than 20 employees and in turn drive about 10,000 people out of jobs due to their companies going out of business.

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.