Future Intel PCs May Include VOIP, Cellular

Intel Corp. plans to differentiate its business platforms by integrating the ability to make cell phone calls within the next two years, and is researching VOIP hardware integration, executives said.

The move comes as Intel looks to expand its platforms—the combination of processor, chip set, wireless components and other peripherals—into separate road maps for both the enterprise and consumer markets. Each platform will be further bisected into a mobile and desktop component, executives said, charting as many as four discrete paths for OEMs to follow.

"It wont be an official brand, but will be an ongoing series of platforms," said Gregory Bryant, general manager of the Digital Office Platforms Division, in an interview.

Intels latest desktop hardware bundle will be available with baked-in management software, along with speedier networking and faster graphics. Click here to read more.

Each group will pull from Intels various technologies but will have independent priorities, producing a broad base of shared technologies with certain distinguishing and possibly unique characteristics, a representative of Intels Digital Office Platforms division said this week.

For its part, the groups "Intel Professional Business Platform" will push Intels first implementation of its Intel Active Management technology as a means for an IT manager to remotely patch, boot and otherwise manage a PC remotely. Collaboration will also be a key goal, leading to Intels integration of cellular technologies.

Intels cellular work was first tipped last summer, when Intel road maps released at a mobility event in Palo Alto, Calif., showed a wireless WAN chip set added to the companys handheld chip set road map.

However, according to Bryant, Intel will add cellular capabilities to its notebook platforms within two years time. Intel has begun laying out the groundwork by integrating its High-Definition Audio into its upcoming Intel 945G chip set, part of the Intel Professional Business Platform. The added audio capabilities will improve videoconferencing and other communications technologies.

"We are also working on making the cell phone work with the notebook specifically—and that will happen over the next couple years (no specific technology we can talk about yet)," Bryant added in an e-mail following the interview.

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