According to Teltarif and the Intel website, Intel will soon launch a new version of their Centrino notebook chipset under the name of "Centrino 2". The Centrino 2 platform will be sold with two different wireless chips: "Shirley Peak" will be the default standard 802.11agn Wifi module. Alternatively a combined Wifi / WiMAX chip named "Echo Peak" brings WiMAX connectivity as part of the chipset but will likely be a bit more expensive than the Wifi only module.
I am a bit disappointed that Intel didn't have the guts to ship WiMAX as a standard feature with their next generation notebook chipset. It would surely have helped to push WiMAX a lot more. So the question is now how much the price difference is between Shirely and Echo. Let's hope it is small enough to encourage companies to use it as a differentiator.
There are some major computer manufacturers which announced in September last year at IDF-Intel Developing Forum, support for WiMax in their product. Among them Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic and Lenovo. No offical declaration so far from HP and Dell relative to WiMax, but we should not forget the bias both giants have historically showed for european wireless technology- finally they are embedding for quite a while 3G/HSPA modules within their laptops.
I searched a little and found that both combo controllers "Shirley Peak" and "Echo Peak" will be based on a 45 nm Centrino2 (Penryn-Core 2 Duo T9000/T8000) platform, the first equiped with Intel WiFi Link 5100/5300 while the second with WiMax/WiFi Link 5100/5300. For more details check at http://www.intel.com/technology/wimax/products.htm
Posted by: Augustin Dobre | March 13, 2008 at 03:56 PM