Intel demos WiMAX Mobile

Intel has completed the design for its first mobile WiMAX chip

Intel has completed the design for its first mobile WiMAX chip, which is expected to find its way into new laptops, handheld PCs and mobile phones within the next two years.

The 3G World Congress and Mobility Marketplace in Hong Kong saw the chip maker demonstrate a Centrino Duo based laptop with mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005), 802.11n Wi-Fi and high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) 3G capabilities, which successfully accessed the Internet at 'broadband' speeds over a mobile WiMAX network.

Intel did not reveal the exact data transfer rates, but experts believe WiMAX will offer anything up to 10Mbit/s of bandwidth depending on network congestions and line-of-sight conditions between the device and the transmission mast.

It is as yet unclear what the effect of including three mobile communications chips within one device will have on system cooling and battery life.