An Intel spokesman said the company still expects to introduce its dual-mode 802.11b/g chipset in the fourth quarter, with Centrino-brand notebook PCs adopting the protocol in the first quarter of 2004. That places the Santa Clara, Calif., company behind at least three other vendors -- Atheros Communications, Broadcom, and Intersil -- all of which already are delivering production quantities of single- and dual- mode 802.11g chipsets. Moreover, several other vendors are expected to field their own "g" chipsets in the next few months.

The Intel spokesman claimed the company will not suffer as a result of its later entry into the 802.11g market. "We will launch product on our road-map. We take a long-range view of the Wi-Fi market," he said. "We won't release any product that doesn't meet the Intel-brand promise."

There are a few factors that may work to Intel's advantage. For one, the "g" standard was ratified by the IEEE only in June, meaning that the industry Wi-Fi Alliance will be spending several months conducting product compatability tests before certifying chipsets as compliant with 802.11g.

Another factor tilting in Intel's direction is the company's Centrino mobile wireless computing campaign which, similar to the Intel Inside program, subsidizes the marketing budgets of PC makers. Intel's expectation, according to analysts, is that its financial clout and general market presence will entice notebook computer manufacturers to drop other "g" chipsets in exchange for Intel's help defraying their product promotion costs.

But whether the company can roll back the gains of its competitors remains to be seen. Several rivals hope to use their earlier entrance to add enhanced chipset features ahead of Intel.

"The Intel delay gives us a huge advantage," said Jeff Abramowitz, senior WLAN marketing director at Broadcom Corp., Irvine, Calif. Abramowitz noted that while 802.11g chipsets share the same 2.4GHz frequency as Intel's existing 802.11b-compliant devices, "g" products offer data rates of 54Mbits/s -- five times faster than what Intel's Centrino platform can deliver today.

Intel will also miss out on the back-to-school and Christmas sales seasons, which are expected to be big drivers for "g" Wi-Fi, said Craig Barratt, president of Atheros Communications Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. "By the end of the year, the sales of 802.11g and 802.11b should be running 50-50," Barratt said.

A spokesman for Intersil Corp., Irvine, Calif., agreed that "g" Wi-Fi chipsets will outsell the "b" version by the end of the year, with multimode 802.11a/b/g moving heavily into the notebook market in the fourth quarter.

Already the three "g" WLAN producers said major notebook PC builders like Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NEC, Sony, and Toshiba are offering 802.11g Wi-Fi as an option to the Centrino platform.

"Customers will determine whether they will buy the optional 802.11g Wi-Fi or stick with the Intel 'b' WLAN in Centrino," said Will Strauss, an analyst at Forward Concepts Co., Tempe, Ariz.

Atheros' Barratt said the decision to go with "g" or "b" Wi-Fi must be made by consumers at the point of sale, since the factory-installed WLAN mini-PCI card can't be easily replaced by the user.

Before it transitions to 802.11g, however, Intel will roll out a dual-mode 802.11a/b chipset in the middle of the third quarter. As with the "b" version, the chipset will use a radio component manufactured by Philips Semiconductors and an 802.11b baseband made by Texas Instruments Inc. For the first time, Intel said it will supply its own internally developed 802.11a baseband. Strauss said if Intel has developed an 802.11a baseband IC, then it is likely well on its way to developing an 802.11g baseband, because both WLAN protocols use a similar complex OFDM (orthogonal frequency division modulation) technique.

"If Intel has mastered this, then getting to a 'g' Wi-Fi shouldn't be that difficult for them," Strauss said.

Intel said that its 802.11b/g WLAN will be the first to use all-Intel chips for the radio, MAC, and baseband. Yet another Wi-Fi chipset, a multimode 802.11a/b/g device, is on the Intel roadmap, to be introduced in the first quarter of 2004.

By: DocMemory
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