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Intel to show Atom-based 'Rosepoint' chips with integrated Wi-Fi

Intel to show Atom-based 'Rosepoint' chips with integrated Wi-Fi

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Intel plans to bring a new chip to ISSCC 2012 in San Francisco this week that integrates a dual-core Atom processor and a Wi-Fi transceiver on the same silicon. We don't have too many details yet, but the 32nm SoC codenamed Rosepoint is expected to bring significant reductions in power, cost, and size to Intel-powered smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

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Intel Rosepoint SoC
Intel Rosepoint SoC

It looks like Intel's taking its mobile business seriously: the company plans to bring a new chip to ISSCC 2012 in San Francisco this week that integrates a dual-core Atom processor and a Wi-Fi transceiver on the same silicon. We don't have too many details yet, but the 32nm SoC codenamed Rosepoint is expected to bring significant reductions in power, cost, and size to Intel-powered smartphones, tablets, and laptops. What's even more exciting is that the Wi-Fi built into Rosepoint is a digital RF chip, which will be easier and cheaper to scale down. Intel CTO Justin Rattner told Wired that the digital Wi-Fi chip (unlike current analog ones) should scale with Moore's law and has "state of the art power efficiency."

According to Wired, the chip won't be ready for primetime until at least halfway through the decade, and it currently supports just 2.4GHz Wi-Fi — though versions with cellular data and built-in radio antennas are in the works. Intel says that one difficulty with getting the Wi-Fi transceiver and the dual-core Atom processor on the same die was preventing interference, as both operate on similar frequencies. Intel's due to present its research on Monday at ISSCC 2012, so we'll know then if ARM, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and TI have something to worry about.