4. veebruar 2003. INTEL investeerib jõudsalt Wi-Fi tehnoloogia arengusse ja kavatseb kevadel suurt läbilööki mobiilsete arvutite turul oma uue protsessorite põlvkonnaga: pilt[centrino.jpg] Protsessori kiirusel ei ole siinkohal enam kandvat rolli. Hoopis Üliväike voolutarve ja Wi-Fi integreeritus on selle protsessori olemuseks! Funktsionaalsus ja väikearvuti pikk tööiga akutoitel on müüvaks faktoriks lähitulevikus. Uudis on murranguline, sest kui INTEL ja AMD plaanide kohaselt integreeritakse WiFi-andmeside 2003. aastast alates arvuti protsessorisse, siis kõik järgnevate põlvkondade arvutid on suutelised omavahel: 1. eetris distantsilt suhtlema, 2.Internetiühendust, sealhulgas kõneedastust jagama 3. Iseseisvaid alamvõrke looma Eriline on taoline võrk veel ses mõttes, et mida rohkem võrgusõlmi liitub, seda suuremaks osutub sellise võrgu läbilaskevõime, vastupidiselt tavavõrgule. INTEL üheskoos AT&T ja IBM-ga loob ka uue tasulise Wi-Fi võrgu: COMETA Networks Samuti näib et USA ja maailma suurimate arvutifirmadega ei soovi vaielda isegi USA Kaitseministeerium, kes lõpuks loobus oma tõrjuvast hoiakust Wi-Fi tehnoloogia suhtes ja sõlmis tootjatega vastavasisulise leppe: US Department of Defense reach to: WiFi pact Loe lähemalt: Intels Centrino to Make Wi-Fi a Household Word Despite the media love affair with Wi-Fi, there has been a noticeable lack of mass-market advertising campaigns devoted to the technology. Intel will change all that in March when it officially launches the Centrino line of mobile chips (formerly known as Banias). Intel will pump several hundred million dollars into advertising Centrino and paying PC makers to advertise computers with Centrino inside. Just a year ago, Intel was making noise over having the fastest chip. Today, speed has taken a back seat to mobility. As CEO Craig Barrett said recently, Unwiring the consumer is the next logical advance in consumer electronics. Hot Spots are the New Killer App Without hot spots, Centrino chips arent of much value. So Intel has also gone into the hot spot business with AT&T and IBM (see Cometa Networks). Going one step further, one might assume that Intel would actually want Wi-Fi access to be free in most places. After all, free access will only encourage more people to buy Centrino-loaded laptops. But if they head in this direction, will operators follow? Intel vs. Operators? While operators clearly want to make money off of Wi-Fi access, not every Wi-Fi player is going to be so enthused to charge for it. This will make for a lively struggle in the marketplace. We would bet that equipment vendors will lead the push to make Wi-Fi access free, forcing operators to sell added services and not access. Either way, its going to be a very interesting year.