Belated Speed Boost
Notebook designs need all three of Intel Corp.’s preferred parts — its Pentium M processor, one of its 855 series chipsets, and its Pro/Wireless network adapter — to wear the chip giant’s ballyhooed Centrino badge. But many PC vendors have sacrificed the latter for the sake of offering buyers more robust 54Mbps wireless networking, because Intel’s Pro/Wireless 2100 supported only the 11Mbps speeds of the 802.11b WiFi standard.
Now Intel has finally shipped a dual-band solution, the Pro/Wireless 2100A, which works with both 802.11b networks (using 2.4GHz radio signals) and 802.11a gear, featuring data-transfer rates of up to 54Mbps via the 5GHz range that’s less vulnerable to interference from consumer products like cordless phones and microwave ovens.
Intel says the WiFi-certified Pro/Wireless 2100A supports more users per WLAN access point, as well as the WEP, WPA, and third-party security protocols; the company does not yet offer Centrino silicon that follows the 802.11g standard, which combines 54Mbps speed with 802.11b backwards compatibility. Intel expects the original 2100 solution to continue shipping in high volumes for the rest of this year and into 2004.