Intel to put speed in wireless

Chip maker Intel will be making a major push into the wireless computing sector with the launch of two new product lines this year, according to Joseph LaValle, Asia-Pacific director of sales for the company's communications and embedded silicon group.

In the first quarter, Intel plans to introduce the first chips in its XScale family, aimed at the handheld computing market which is dominated by Motorola's ARM-based processors and hotly contested by rivals such as Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Agilent and Hitachi.

Although Mr LaValle declined to specify the speed at which the new XScale chips will run, industry speculation has put starting speeds at 400 megahertz to 450Mhz and Intel has demonstrated the chips at one gigahertz or more.

Talk of such speeds indicates that Intel is ready to bring the clock-speed rivalry that drove desktop processors to 2Gh or more to the wireless space, where personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile telephones are expected to demand more power as they add computing functions.

For the mobile and wireless market, an additional challenge is reducing power consumption and price while increasing speeds.

Intel also plans to make available later this year its all-in-one baseband chip with flash memory, processing and radio communications.