Intel Centrino to Feature 802.11n Wireless

The news that forthcoming Intel Centrino laptop platform (known as Santa Rosa and Centrino Pro) will feature draft 802.11n wireless, even though the final ratification of this standard isn’t likely to come until 2008, are confirmed again. Alan Crouch, director and general manager of Intel’s Communications Technology Lab, said during a presentation at the IEEE Globecom 2006 Expo that Intel expects to put a prestandard version of IEEE 802.11n Wi-Fi technology into its Centrino chips by next year.

The IEEE 802.11n wireless speed is expected to scale to 600Mbit/sec, with a range 50% greater than Wi-Fi currently offers, according to IEEE member Bill McFarland.

Notebook OEMs, such as Dell and Lenovo, have already offered laptops with 802.11n wireless cards, while the Apple’s latest MacBook Pro is also rumored to have it, although Mac OS X drivers for 802.11n are not yet available.