DailyTech - Intel to Release 802.11n Capable Chipset Despite Standards Limbo

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Gadgets Intel to Release 802.11n Capable Chipset Despite Standards Limbo
Brandon Hill (Blog) - August 29, 2006 1:28 PM

9 comment(s) - last by JarredWalton.. on Aug 30 at 5:09 AM

Intel will release 802.11n capable Santa Rosa chipset with or without final ratification

When DailyTech reported earlier this month that final ratification of the 802.11n wireless networking protocol wouldn't likely come until 2008, we wondered what the delay would mean for Intel's Santa Rosa platform. Santa Rosa, the next generation mobile platform from Intel, will feature Merom 2 processors, the Crestline motherboard chipset, and will feature 802.11n support courtesy of the Kedron networking chip.

Mooly Eden, VP and GM of Intel's mobile platforms group told CNET News in an interview that Intel will go ahead with plans to launch its Santa Rosa platform with draft 802.11n support. Releasing Santa Rosa with a draft standard networking chip could possibly lead to sporadic performance and a number of interoperability issues as witnessed by the latest 802.11n testing from eWeek.

Although the situation that Intel is being placed in and the uncertainty surrounding 802.11n technology is far from ideal, the company is confident that compatibility and performance issues with the draft standard will be worked out by the time that Santa Rosa is released in Q1 2007.

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just finalize it already.

By h0kiez on 8/29/2006 2:06:29 PM , Rating: 2

Seems like they ought to just leave the specs that the "draft standard" calls for. There have already been "pre-n" routers for years, and by the time Intel releases a few million "pre-n" laptops, seems like it almost automatically becomes the de facto standard.

RE: just finalize it already.

By stubeck on 8/29/2006 3:44:21 PM , Rating: 2

Pre-N was worthless, they want to make sure the standard is good before they finalize it. Sure it would make it easy to just say "lets just finalize this crap and start on another standard" but they would much rather have a good standard than another stop gap until 3 years down we have another standard which is actually good.

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RE: just finalize it already.

By kkwst2 on 8/29/2006 6:26:56 PM , Rating: 2

I wish I could agree that it was about having a "good" standard. But it's much more about trying to appease all the good players and end up with something acceptable than something that is ideal.

You can say that Pre-N routers were worthless from an enterprise standpoint, but my experience was that they offered significant performance gains (both in range and throughput) at a fairly reasonable price point. That's more than I can say with my (admittedly limited) experience with Draft-N. I would come closer to calling Draft-N worthless, as it rendered my integrated Intel b/g card in my T42 virtually unusable, whereas range was improved when using it (T42) with a Belkin Pre-N.

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RE: just finalize it already.

By Puddleglum on 8/29/2006 6:34:17 PM , Rating: 2

"Aug. 29 The Wi-Fi Alliance originally planned to hold off certification of 802.11n products until the IEEE finished ratifying their standards for the wireless technology. But they can wait no longer."

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ZDM/story?id=2369...

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Common sense

By Puddleglum on 8/29/2006 2:11:34 PM , Rating: 2

... says that new technology is chosen over older technology. What would happen to the integrated wireless market if Intel didn't have any offerings until 2008? This makes me happy.

RE: Common sense

By peternelson on 8/29/2006 2:27:15 PM , Rating: 4

The trouble is , one vendors "pre-N" is almost certainly not the same as another vendors "pre-N" because they work off different versions of the spec or drafts and revisions.

These standards change too quickly and encourage obsolescence. ie we've been through B, G, A, pre-N, (not to mention pre-G, G+, MIMO, , WPA, WPA2 etc) and by 2008 wimax will likely be taking off anyway as a complementary technology.

Some lame implementations of pre-G or extensions to it, unfortunately hog the spectrum and minimise bandwidth for other users. That is inconsiderate.

This is not a race I want to play. My wifi B and G works.

If you need very fast or long distance connection go wired or go wimax.

If you want internet access over wifi, the new standards are a waste of time unless your ISP connection exceeds 50 or 100Mbps. Most DSL lines won't be giving anywhere near that to your access point/router.

Provided the draft spec is sufficiently close to final that they will guarantee to make it comply using a firmware update, it's not so much a worry. Intel is a vendor I trust to update wifi drivers, but as for users patching them onto their systems not all will. But finding a proliferation of lame-vendor non-compliant hardware without support is something I'd rather not see.

G is fine for most needs, and A helps uncongest the 2.4Ghz spectrum. Thus current ABG cards (like latest centrino) are current technology and satisfactory for almost all user needs.

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RE: Common sense

By Xavian on 8/29/2006 3:47:19 PM , Rating: 2

The extended through-put and distance is what drives people to pre-802.11n, i know that in my house i have a few black spots i'd like to get cleared up and im some parts of my house the speed is so rediculous and latency so high its almost unusable.

I understand bad neighbour considerations, but 802.11n isn't useless by any means, and its probably the reason why people want it to be finalised.

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Is Intel any different then other manufactors

By hstewarth on 8/29/2006 2:33:15 PM , Rating: 2

No big deal, is Intel any different than other manufactor - like Netgear, DLink and Linksys..

Who knows - the fact that Intel is going to support the standard, will likely finalized the standard.

It's worse than you think!

By JarredWalton on 8/30/2006 5:09:59 AM , Rating: 2

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2824

Considering Draft N? Hopefully you don't have any neighbors running wireless networks! Pre-N hardware actually seems better than the current crop of Draft N stuff. Maybe Intel will fix that with their new chipset, though.