Intel's Rosepoint Puts Wi-Fi Radio, Atom CPU on Single Chip
A dual-core Atom CPU and a digital Wi-Fi radio on the same chip.
Once the king of the netbook market with its Atom chipset, Intel now faces stiff competition from the likes of Nvidia and AMD. However, a current research project at Intel shows that Intel hasn't lost its edge just yet. Dubbed Rosepoint, Wired reports that, after years of hard work, Intel engineers have managed to squeeze a digital 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio and a low-power Atom CPU onto the same chip.
Though it sounds simple enough, sticking these two components onto the same chip is no easy feat. Wired's Robert McMillan explains that Intel's researchers not only had to figure out a way to take a complex analogue WiFi chip (with its complicated design and customized circuits operating on a continuum of voltages) and boil it down to the tiny scale required, the company also needed to figure out a way to eliminate radio wave emissions that can cause interference between the two components.
The resulting chip allows not only for fewer chips (which means a lower cost) but also heightened power efficiency. Though Rosepoint is only in the research stages right now, it could show up in laptops and phones by 2015. As if all of this weren't bad-ass enough, Intel is also looking at ways to radio antennas on-chip, too. It might be a while before we hear more details, but it sure is nice to hear what's going on behind closed doors over in Santa Clara, isn't it?
Head on over to Wired for the full details on how Intel has gotten a digital WiFi radio and an Atom CPU to play house.
Follow @JaneMcEntegart on Twitter for the latest news.
- Intel,
- Intel-Atom ,
- Rosepoint ,
- WiFi-radio ,
- on-chip ,
- wireless
- Intel Readies New 313 Series Caching SSDs for Ivy Bridge
- AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series Specs Revealed in Leak
- Court Ruling Could See Pirate Bay Blocked in the UK
- Samsung Unveils Two New Galaxy Phones Headed for Europe
- Microsoft Nukes Recent Office for iPad Rumor
- Nvidia, ZTE Intros Tegra 2 + Icera Smartphone
- Intel Reveals More Details of Ivy Bridge Variants at ISSCC
- Ubuntu For Android to be Shown Next Week at MWC 2012
- Deals Feb 21: Dell Core i7 + 22" LCD Desktop $699 FS
- AMD Piledriver Cores to Use Energy Recovery Tech
- Deals Feb 22: 17.3" Dell Core i7 Quad-core Laptop $849
- Noctua Announces Low-Profile NH-L12 CPU Cooler
- SanDisk Develops World’s Smallest 128Gb NAND Chip
- Sapphire Unveils Edge-HD3 Mini PC
- Guild Wars 2 Public Beta Signup Limited Time Only
- Winners of PCs in Our Dec. 2011 System Builder Contest
- Windows 8 Will (Finally) Include Support for UK English
- UK High Court Allows Legal Claim to Be Served via Facebook
It would be amazing if they manage to use the heatsink as a antenna
for some reason it took me a minute to realize that by wifi radio it simply meant wifi instead of a wifi radio station like I heart radio or something.... where's that coffee...
Anywho, very cool tech! One would think they would have a much easier time putting it on a northbridge instead of the CPU as there should be less interference, but maybe they will have a whole SOC for atom before long, and really be able to compete with the ARM chips on the market for cell phones and such. My contract is up in 2 years... so they better have something good and affordable by then
... that a waste of silicon...
I'd rather have more speed and the wireless external. more flexibility...
+1
Intel Santa Clara projects.
Snapdragon move to all-in-one chip...
http://www.qualcomm.co.uk/snapdragon/processors
Nice, and about time too =D
It would be amazing if they manage to use the heatsink as a antenna
Thats a hell of an Idea, put a patent on it and sue the crap out of intel =D j/k
Looks like Intel may be getting the edge of amd in the low power arena.
Good job and good luck selling these in 2015.
can't wait for the day they integrate everything into an atom.
'Intel is also looking at ways to radio antennas on-chip, too. '
Should be 'Intel is also looking at ways to put radio antennas on-chip, too. '
what will lintel come up with next? wireless electricity? ^^
what will lintel come up with next? wireless electricity? ^^
Actually they have already been working on this for some 15 years now
Eventually, we'll have an entire computer on a chip. I'd give it about 20 years.
And Bigfoot's Killer Network cards would continue to sell strong...
If they can put a wi-fi transceiver on a CPU, then they can put any transceiver on a CPU, I would think. How about a TV tuner, AM/FM receiver, weather band, and SW receiver, all crammed onto a CPU? I don't see why it would be difficult to open up the spectrum a little. If they can do it for the ISM band (wi-fi) then they should be able to do it for all radio communications. And why not add GPS to the CPU as well?
like put lipstick on a pig, it still can't run angry bird smoothly, not even crisis......
These chips may not have heatsink at all. might be used in phones
Dear Intel,
If you feel threatened by competition, you could consider making faster Atoms.
I don't like this. I like to pick my own wif chipsets and antennas.