Intel gets behind pre-802.11n, adding to Centrino
Well, it doesn't look like there's any turning back now. After waiting for what feels like the better part of a century for an official stamp of approval on 802.11n, draft-n and pre-n products just got a whole lot of legitimacy from Intel, who has now announced it will be stuffing the pre-standard WiFi spec into its Centrino chipsets as early as next year. Along with the usual user benefits of added speed and supposed range improvements over 802.11g -- Intel is claiming 50 percent greater, but we'll believe that when we see it -- the inclusion of pre-n by Intel will most likely create a de-facto standard for 802.11n which could prove difficult for the IEEE Standards Committee to screw with when they finally get around to finalizing the 802.11n spec in 2008. Sounds like a win for consumers for now, but we could all be hurting come mid-2008 when we find out those fancy laptops we sprung for in 2007 are suddenly obsolete.
[Via Ars Technica]
