Intel has achieved a new technological breakthrough when the US chip giant combined a Wi-Fi transceiver with a dual-core Atom processor.
The invention will allow a number of changes in the digital world just a few of which include lower power consumption, fewer separate chips, longer battery life and lower overall prices.
The company plans to present its new chip, codenamed Rosepoint at ISSCC 2012 in San Francisco later this week.
It may seem as an unimportant technological development but the Intel achievement should not be underestimated. In fact the miniaturization of radio components such as Wi-Fi chips has been very difficult due to the fact that they contain very complex analogue circuitry. In addition both CPUs and radios emit disruptive radiation. “This radiation seeps into the RF module and corrupts the data,” says Hossein Alavi, director of Intel’s Radio Integration Lab. “The closer they are, the more interference is going to go to them.”
To get around this, Intel has developed noise-cancelling and radiation-shielding measures to apply to the chips. It even has chips with antennas included in the works.
Intel’s chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, says the chips will have “state of the art power efficiency,” and that “with a digital approach to radio, you can bring the benefits of Moore’s law to RF and radio circuits.”
Still a research subject the chips are expected on the market by year 2015.
Source: Techradar