Intel said Wednesday it has cancelled plans to integrate an HSDPA module built by Nokia into it’s next-generation laptop, code-named “Santa Rosa.” Instead, it will rely solely on Wi-Fi technology to give mobile PC users wireless Internet access. Intel plans to launch the platform in the second quarter of 2007, reports InfoWorld.
Intel had first announced the partnership in September. But Intel has now decided that notebook vendors would not be willing to pay enough to justify the investment.
“After doing further analysis, we decided it wasn’t a good enough ROI to bring that product to the notebook market now. But that doesn’t change the value proposition of Santa Rosa at all,” said Intel spokeswoman Connie Brown.
The company still plans to use HSDPA in future platforms.
Now, Intel will provide all notebook connectivity with its “Kedron” Next-Gen Wireless-N card, an embedded network adapter that uses the IEEE 802.11 Draft-N standard, as well as existing a, b, and g standards. Intel’s Santa Rosa laptop will also support mobile WiMAX later in the year.
Santa Rosa will use Intel’s Core 2 Duo (Merom) processor and incorporate 802.11n, ‘Robson’ NAND Flash hard drive cache, and the Graphics Media Accelerator X3000. The 667Mhz to 800MHz frontside bus can be dynamically reduced and raised, as required by the operating workload.
The 965GM chipset will contain Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3000 integrated graphics engine with Clear Video Technology for piping video data through the pixel shaders.
Intel’s next WiMAX product after the Rosedale 2 will be the single-chip Ofer-R radio, which supports both 802.11n and WiMAX. It will appear initially in laptops, then to other portable devices such as MP3 players.
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