Intel develops all-in-one WiFi chip

KYOTO, Japan: Intel Corporation said it has developed a prototype of an all-CMOS direct conversion dual-band radio transceiver capable of supporting every current WiFi standard (802.11a, b and g), as well as the projected requirements of 802.11n.

The system-in-a-package technology is a significant step toward enabling integrated CMOS radios that could provide improved wireless capabilities in future Intel platforms at a low cost, stated the company press release.

Announced as part of a technical paper delivered at the Symposium on VLSI Technology in Kyoto, Japan, it outlines the building blocks Intel created to implement the fully flexible, multimode radio in a standard CMOS process. A future extension to the WiFi standard, 802.11n will more than double the wireless transfer speed compared to today's implementation, said the paper.

"This system-in-a-package design uses more low-voltage circuitry than we've ever used in the past, which means we can integrate it and make it lower cost while operating at lower voltages and providing longer battery life," noted Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, director of Intel's Communications Circuits Research Lab. "The variable bandwidth of this solution extends capabilities beyond today's 20 MHz to 100 MHz, and is expected to support data rates higher than 100 megabits per second that should allow people to enjoy multiple high-quality video streams concurrently."

In the next few years, Intel expects mobile devices will contain several different radios so they can utilize many different wireless communication networks. Intel's research points toward a time in the future when one device will use "smart" antenna systems and a re-configurable CMOS radio on a single device making the radio more power efficient, smaller and low cost. The goal being pursued is the ability to connect to any network, anytime, anywhere on any device.