Intel will begin mass-producing its long-awaited 802.11g wireless networking module at the end of this month, a senior Intel Asia Pacific executive has said.
The Pro Wireless 2200BG unit will be offered alongside Intel"s existing 802.11b and 802.11a/b products, all components of the chip giant"s Centrino platform. The new unit is based on the second generation of "Calexico", Intel"s wireless chipset architecture. Calexico 2 comprises two chips rather than the previous generation"s four.
Calexico 2 will also form the basis for a tri-mode 802.11a/b/g part due to ship early in the second half of 2004. The module will offer 802.11i security, the standard having been ratified by the IEEE by that point. Calexico 2 will also be a key part of "Centrino 2", codenamed "Sonoma" and also due to ship during H2 2004.
Sonoma is based on a new chipset, "Alviso", which will bring a 533MHz frontside bus, PCI Express, DDR 2 SDRAM, Gigabit Ethernet and Serial ATA to Centrino notebooks.