Intel Delays Wi-Fi Support in Grantsdale Chip Set

Intel Delays Wi-Fi Support in Grantsdale Chip Set
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UPDATED: Citing an expected supply/demand imbalance, the company says the ability of Grantsdale PCs to serve as wireless access points won't be broadly available until as late as the fourth quarter.When PCs using Intels "Grantsdale" chip set launch next week, their ability to serve as a wireless access point wont be made broadly available until as late as the fourth quarter, Intel officials said Thursday.

To enable the wireless access point, the Grantsdale chip set will require an Intel-specific PCI card that wont be available until later this year, Intel officials said. OEMs that want to ship their own Wi-Fi-enabled desktops next week will have to buy their own components, and they wont be able to connect to the Intel chip set.

Intel Corp.s "Grantsdale" and "Alderwood" chip sets–now known as the Intel 915 and Intel 925—will be officially unveiled Monday, along with five new microprocessors sporting a new 775-pin socket. Intel officials met with reporters and analysts in San Francisco and New York on Thursday to provide some details on the new chips in advance of the launch.

Intels 915 and 925 contain three features that set them apart from their predecessors: their use of PCI Express as a bus interface, the 775-pin socket and the inclusion of the Wi-Fi access point technology, which would allow a PC using the chipset to become a wireless gateway for other mobile devices.

But Intel officials said the company hasnt been able to ramp up the Wi-Fi technology in time for the launch. "Were announcing the technology Monday and providing availability later throughout the year," Intel spokesman Dan Snyder said in a phone interview.

A small supply of Wi-Fi daughter cards will be available at launch, added Howard High, another Intel spokesman.

"If requests are high (we think, in talking with our OEM customers, that demand will build over time rather that be at a high level from day one) then it is likely that demand will outpace supply," High wrote in an e-mail. "We are ramping production, but dont expect to be in high volume production until later in the year. No technology problems, no manufacturing problems, just classic ramp a new technology into volume situation."

One analyst suspected that Intel deliberately delayed Grantsdales Wi-Fi capabilities to protect its Wi-Fi-enabled Centrino chip set for mobile PCs. Bob Wheeler, a wireless chip analyst for The Linley Group based in Sebastopol, Calif., said that Intels wireless components are made in a third-party foundry, which accepts contracts from semiconductor manufacturers all over the world.

The Semiconductor Industry Association reported last week that about 93 percent of the available semiconductor manufacturing capacity is currently under contract, while 99 percent of all leading-edge, sub-16-micron capacity is being used. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has said that its capacity is nearly 100 percent utilized, Wheeler said.

"Wi-Fi isnt nearly as high a priority [for Grantsdale] as it was with the Centrino launch," Wheeler said.

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Intel has kept a close eye on Grantsdales Wi-Fi capabilities since May, when officials said that the company would ship Grantsdale with the wireless features turned off by default in an attempt to prevent the spread of unsecured access points. Grantsdale PCs that can be upgraded to Wi-Fi access point capabilities will ship using the ICH6W I/O hub, one of the components within the chip set.

The chip set itself contains the control circuitry, while the PCI daughter card will house the actual radio component. Snyder did not say whether the daughter card would require an actual PCI slot on the motherboard or would take advantage of some supplemental connector mounted on the board.

Next Page: None of todays third-party Wi-Fi radios can interface to the ICH6W components.

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