ComSoc SCV Oct 14th meeting: Intel’s Vision for the Future of Wireless Communications + supporting articles/ commentary

Date

Wednesday October 14th, 2009, 6:00 – 8:00PM

Location

National Semiconductor, Building E, Conference Room, 2900 Semiconductor Dr, Santa Clara, CA 95051

 
Title
Intel’s Vision for the Future of Wireless Communications 
Speaker
Siavash Alamouti, CTO, Intel’s Mobile Wireless Group
Bio
Siavash Alamouti is an Intel Fellow in the Mobility Group and Chief Technology Officer for the Mobile Wireless Group of Intel.  In this role, he is responsible for all wireless standards with a product roadmap at Intel.  This includes the WiMAX Forum, IEEE 802.16, 3GPP, OMA, WiFi Alliance, IEEE 802.11,etc.  He is also known as the technical champion of WiMAX technology at Intel.

Alamouti is recognized by the IEEE Communications Society as the author of one of the best 57 papers in the last 50 years of the Society’s history.  He is most well known for the invention of "the Alamouti code" which is included in a number of wireless standards.  Siavash holds over 20 patents in the areas of wireless communications and wireless systems design.  He has authored many publications and technical reports in the last decade for the IEEE Communications Society and other organizations that have reached professional audiences both nationally and internationally.

In addition to standards, Intel’s Mobile Wireless Group undertakes research projects that are targeted at investigating new applications and use models enable by wireless technologies.  One example is My WiFi -which enables high speed peer-to-peer communications between devices using WiFi and future technologies such as WiGig (an industry study group that is likely to be proposed to IEEE 802.11) that promises to provide multi Gbps wireless communications using 60 GHz unlicensed band. 

Abstract
Siavash Alamouti, CTO, Intel’s Mobile Wireless Group, will share his vision for wireless communications in the future and describe various ongoing research projects in wireless communications at Intel.  He will talk about the next generation Mobile WiMAX (also known as WiMAX 2.0) based on the emerging IEEE 802.16m standard and a candidate for IMT-Advanced, and will also discuss Intel’s vision for the evolution of WLAN and WPAN technologies.
 
2 interviews with Alamouti published at:
 
 
 
 
WiMAX Standards Update
 
The IEEE 802.16 Working Group met in its Session #63 the week of 31 August 2009 on Jeju, Korea. The IEEE 802.16 Session #63 Report summarizes the outcomes:
 

 
New article exposing the cracks in 3G networks- close to the breaking point?  iPhones Overload AT&T 3G Network
 
 
Please weigh in with your comments- either here or at the viodi.com web site.  What do you think is the solution to the 3G conundrum?

 
Intel and Qualcomm Eye Each Other’s Terrain
 

PCs are evolving into tablet PCs and small laptops, essentially big smartphones that are always on, always connected to the Internet, with all-day battery life — in short, very much like a large iPhone or BlackBerry. Qualcomm calls these devices smartbooks because the design resembles a large smartphone.

Could this be the ultimate battle for mobile computing chip leadership?  Or is it just another overblown WiMAX vs LTE argument?  Let’s hear from you!

 
The inside of computers has been Intel’s territory, as the world’s biggest maker of microprocessors reminds consumers with its “Intel Inside” campaign.

The cellphone’s guts have been the domain of Qualcomm. As the cellphone becomes more like a computer and the computer more like a cellphone, it was inevitable that the two chip makers would clash.
Intel wants to get inside smartphones, and Qualcomm, one of the largest suppliers of chips for wireless phones, wants to get into small notebook computers.
“Intel is trying to come down from the computer and bring their software ecosystem along,” said Qualcomm’s chief executive, Paul E. Jacobs. “We’re trying to go up from the phone and build the software ecosystem.”
Qualcomm, which sells about 22 percent of all chips used in wireless devices including the iPhone, BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile G1, believes it has never been better situated in its 24-year history to break into the market for computing devices.
Mr. Jacobs sees his company at the center of an industry that is driving the most cutting-edge innovations, as seen in devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm.
 
“That energy is now coming out of the phone industry,” Mr. Jacobs said. “The PC became so standardized that the degree of innovation was not the same as what you see in the phone space.”

 
 
What do you think? Let’s hear from you!

 
 
Is this news article from April 2009, already obsolete? 
Will the world ever see a WiMAX MID, or will the tablet PCs and ebook readers with 3G embedded interfaces be the new gadgets de jour?
 
What about the Intel-Nokia strategic relationship on mobile computing devices – genuine with tangible results or DOA?
 

At a developer event in China, the company, based in Santa Clara, Calif., displayed a range of wireless Internet devices that Intel believes will fill a gap between smartphones and laptops. The company is hoping to capitalize on the success that Apple has had with its iPhone, which is one of the most popular mobile Web smartphones.
Intel is calling the new computers Mobile Internet Devices, or MIDs, and claims that it will have a significant advantage over makers of chips for cellphones because the Intel version will be highly compatible with the company’s laptop and desktop processors for which most Web software is written today.
The first generation of Intel’s MID technology will be aimed at data, not voice communications, leaving the company out of the market for smartphones. That has not damped the enthusiasm of Intel executives who foresee a proliferation of devices ranging from advanced ultracompact laptops to small, tablet-size devices that will be used for browsing the Web, navigation and Internet chat, rather than voice communications.
 
“What enables the innovation is the ability to bring over all the existing PC applications,” said Anand Chandrasekher, general manager of the company’s Ultra Mobility Group.

 

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