3G, WiMAX coming to Intel-based UMPCs

We haven't heard much on the UMPC front lately but it looks like Intel, the world's foremost UMPC evangelist, is getting ready to step its game up in the portable chipset department. The company just announced that its upcoming Menlow chipset, which is designed for UMPCs running either Linux or Windows, will boast embedded support for both WiMAX and 3G Internet, in addition to WiFi. Of course, it will be up to device manufacturers to incorporate these technologies into the hardware that they build, though it's hard to imagine that vendors would choose not to add next-gen connectivity to their devices when its already built-into the chipset. Intel plans to ship the new Menlow platform in early 2008, which means that devices based on the new architecture should start popping up during the second half of the year.

For more on the new version of Menlow:
- see this Infoworld article