A rat's nest of cables at the back of a desk is truly the sign of the gadget-obsessed. But Intel plans to end all that, and soon: it wants your desk—hell, your entire digital life—to be completely wireless by 2016.
At this week's Computex trade show in Taipei, Intel's Senior Vice President Kirk Skaugen explained that Intel's post-
Broadwell chipsets—currently codenamed Skylake—will do away with cables. That means wireless displays, docking and charging all the way,
reports CNET.
And Intel already knows how it's going about it. It reckons a new protocol called WiGig, working at speed of up to 7 Gbps, could be used to provide short-range docking for connectivity and display purposes. That will instantly create connections to screens and peripherals when you move a laptop or tablet within range, then automatically switch out when you move away.
Wireless power, of course, continues to be a headache because
the market's so fragmented. Intel is currently plumping for
Rezence, though, and at Computex showed off a system using its technology installed under a table. Capable of penetrating two inches of wood, it charges multiples items at once. You simply plop your laptop down on a powered desktop to charge your device.
All wonderful, if existing, ideas. But Intel really seems to means what it says: it's partnering with Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Logitech, Panasonic, Asus and Toshiba to push the whole shebang forwards. With names like that coming together, those sci-fi dreams might actually come real—and sooner than we expected. [
CNET]
