Intel to Deliver WiMax On a Single Chip

Intel has announced a new chip design that can handle multiple Wi-Fi signals simultaneously. The company has developed a new technology that minimizes both power consumption and the size of the chip.

The new design has been presented during the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. According to the presented papers, Intel has successfully managed to combine the WiMax standard with the Wi-Fi a/g/n specifications on a single chip. Intel has eliminated the use of a "front-end module," technology that took care of handling multiple frequencies on a single processor. "Eliminating the separate module would ultimately enable the building of a smaller processor with lower power consumption, two important attributes for portable Internet devices," said Hossein Alavi, director of communications circuits at Intel labs.

Intel also succeeded in adding a power amplifier that uses digital signals for boosting the quality and the strength of the signal when receiving or transmitting. One of the most important features of this amplifier is its scalability, which means that if the processor needs to grow more powerful, the amplifier can also adjust. Digital signaling is also important, since the nowadays chips are still using analog amplifiers, with all their limitations (they cannot scale). "Taking advantage of Moore's Law in processors is not possible, if we have anything in analog, and the power amplifier is one of the most difficult to convert," Alavi continued.

Another nifty invention is a smart receiver that can pick up Wi-Fi and WiMax signals, then adjust its power requirements to match the quality of the signal. If the received signal is strong and clear, the chip will decrease its processing power needs. This is extremely important in the mobile world, as it helps increasing the battery life.

Intel's WiMax-on-a-Chip technology will power the next generation of ultra-mobile PCs, including Asustek's upcoming versions of Eee PC with increased screen sizes, among other improvements.