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Alienware Chooses Airgo chipsets for new laptops

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the battle-of-the-machines dept.

Julios Lanza writes "Alienware has chosen chipsets made by Airgo Networks to power two game-focused laptops. Alienware's 17-inch Aurora m9700 and 19-inch Aurora mALX notebooks are equipped with the Airgo's Gen3 True MIMO (multiple input, multiple output). Airgo's chips are designed to connect a computer with Wi-Fi systems at speeds fast enough to make high-performance gaming possible, Airgo executives said."

2 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. That's amazing! ... ? by tomstdenis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And we care because?

    If I want a serious gaming rig it'll be a desktop where I can upgrade parts without paying a serious fortune or having to mail my rig back to Dell for upgrades.

    Laptops are for work. Work involves travel. Lighter is better. Screw having a 250W laptop capable of playing Oblivion at 2560x1280 at 60fps if I can't lug it around to some random meeting half way around the world.

    Oh, this is written on a Fujitsu Lifebook. A laptop that gets 7 hours of battery life, runs both linux and windows, weighs about 4 lbs and fits easily in my knapsack. I like my Insprion Dell laptop [630m] but compared to the lifebook it's a monster. Weighs nearly 8lbs and while it fits in my bag as well it's a bit more cumbersome to lug around.

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  2. Premature garbage by bananaendian · · Score: 4, Informative
    Don't read the TFA - read this: A Peek Ahead at 802.11n: MIMO-OFDM

    Airgo's "True MIMO" is a pre-standard interpretation of the future 802.11blah (TGnSync vs. WWiSE) and will most likely not be compatible with the final 802.11n.

    The MIMO concept itself offers to double the throughput at the expense of increasing bandwidth from 20 to 40MHz as well as spreading multipath garbage on the spectrum. If you've had fun with congestion on 802.11b/g channels, this 802.11n will really make your day.

    Ok, so it might have marginally better spectral efficiency per Mbps but really, what we want to see is true beamforming dynamic-arrays that will properly 'point' the RF where it's supposed to go in real-time.

    Meanwhile one of these 'gaming' laptops will just screwup the spectrum and slowdown existing b/g channels.

    --
    www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications