Intel's blue skies glimpsed
The future is bright, the future is Intel
Intel gave delegates a sneak insight into some of its R&D projects during its developers forum in Munich.
Next year the chip giant expects to introduce seamless movement across multiple wired and wireless networks provided through intelligent roaming.In the longer term, it is working on ultra wideband personal area networks, sensor networks and silicon photonics.
Ultra wideband networks are high-speed, short-range systems. Intel demonstrated one transferring data at 100Mbps, which it expects to release in about two years, but said that within five years this would be working at 500Mbps.
Currently the system is directional, but Intel CTO Pat Gelsinger said this could be eliminated once the system was silicon-based. The US has already granted spectrum permission and Intel is working towards similar approval in Europe.
Intel's sensor technology is aimed at networks where the topology changes rapidly. Each node dynamically finds another node and the network continually reconfigures to ensure it has the best fit to route traffic. The nodes are about the size of a 10p coin and designed to be pervasive in their environment.
The third big area Intel is working on is silicon photonics, where it is trying to create silicon-based filters to bend light. The system is much cheaper than mechanical processes, which can only filter one wavelength.
"It means companies can quickly and easily reconfigure wavelengths," said Gelsinger. "It also reduces the operational cost of an optical network. Our ultimate goal is chip-to-chip connections based on silicon photonics.
"For wireless there will be an indistinguishable difference between mobile devices and PDAs. We'll have cellphones the size of earrings and personal area networks replacing wired networks."
Intel is also designing silicon replacements for many of the costly passive components in cellphones. The company has built components such as antennas, switches and low noise amplifiers in CMOS silicon.