On the heels of Apple's commitment to 802.11n, Intel gets in the act: The timing is no coincidence. Apple and Intel have been coordinating messages, and even though Apple won't be using Intel's chips--Atheros appears to be the anointed party--Intel wanted to wait until after the IEEE task group vote last week and after CES, too. Apple jumped the gun by a few days.
Notebook partners include Acer, Asus, Gateway, and Toshiba committed at this point, with systems available at the end of January using Centrino Duo. The Santa Rosa laptop chipset platform is due in the second quarter of 2007, at which point they expect more participation.
Like Apple, Intel says five times the throughput, twice the range, but only in comparison with their previous products--no actual specs on megabits per second or feet/meters. They do note that N will provide an hour more battery life under comparable circumstances with the previous Centrino flavor. They will support 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz N channels.
The announcement includes the Connect with Centrino program, in which access point makers commit to rigorous testing with Intel to ensure interoperability. This is clever, because it will go beyond the Wi-Fi Alliance tests, which focus on wireless protocols, and include the whole ecosystem of DHCP addressing and other factors. Asus, Belkin, Buffalo, D-Link, and NetGear are all part of this first wave of branding.
Glenn
What do you think of George Ou's column that says real world 802.11n will only be twice as fast - and recommends 5 GHz operation for MIMO devices
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=411
[Editor's note: I don't agree with his account of the history nor the limitations in radio design that he describes. Ou also omits the issue of power output limits for 5 GHz in the indoor bands, the restrictions of use of various subsets for outdoor use only. For example, 2.4 GHz bands can use up to 1W omni output (4W effective), while the lower 5 GHz bands (the bottom four indoor channels for A and single-channel N) are allowed 50 mW; these are the only indoor channels that Apple supports. The next four indoor channels allow 250 mW. So there's a lot more to talk about there.
I also don't agree with Ou's fundamental point: that 5 GHz remains unsupported and will continue to be so in N. Apple's $179 Extreme base station (due in February) does 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. Intel has certified a set of access points for its Centrino with N refresh, and their Centrino adapter supports both bands. The incremental cost for 5 GHz is going to be fairly small now that N moves into full production.
I see a lot more use of 5 GHz, with the proviso that the limits in signal strength in the indoor channels may provide some checks on its utility.
I'll have to write some more about this, obviously.-gf]