Intel to integrate 802.11n into Centrino chipset

What happens when a standards body moves at a glacial pace? In the case of 802.11n WiFi, the standards body becomes irrelevant. Consumers wanted the new standard and vendors wanted to sell the new gear, but the IEEE working group looked like it wouldn't approve a final standard until 2008. Despite this fact, retailers started selling 802.11n gear and consumers started buying it--with no guarantees as to whether the gear would be compatible with the final standard. Luckily, the Wi-Fi Alliance (an industry group consisting of representatives from major vendors) stepped in to bring order to the chaos. They recently announced that they'll start certifying the so-called "draft 802.11n" products for interoperability with the final standard. Well, at this point, with major vendors like Linksys, Belkin, D-Link and Dell already playing the n game, it's a pretty safe time to dive in. Enter Intel: The chip manufacturing behemoth has announced that it too will jump on the bandwagon by offering pre-draft 802.11n functionality in the next iteration of the wildly popular Centrino mobile chipset. Given how widely-used the Centrino is in laptops, this could essentially set the de facto standard for, well, the standard. Also heavily rumored to succumb to peer pressure is Apple, who analysts expect will debut pre-802.11n based AirPort hardware at the MacWorld Expo in January, just in time for their iTV streaming media product.

For more on the new Centrino chipset:
- see this article from Ars Technica