Consumers want all their electronic devices to connect and communicate wirelessly, said Louis Burns, Intel vice president and general manager of the Desktop Platforms Group speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Intel is working on unified platforms for the digital home. Key among Intel’s digital home initiatives is the new Pentium 4 processor built on 90nm (formerly Prescott), which is available now, and an upcoming chipset code-named “Grantsdale,” which will be available in Q2 of this year. Developed for the mainstream consumer market segment, Grantsdale will include next generation integrated graphics optimized for high-definition video and dual independent display technology that allows independent images to be delivered to two different displays.
Grantsdale and Alderwood (an enthusiast chipset) will be the first PC client chipsets to feature DDR2 memory. This technology will provide higher bandwidth and cooler temperatures for all types of PCs, including Entertainment PCs and notebooks. Grantsdale will also feature PCI Express, a new, higher bandwidth bus technology, and an integrated wireless access point, eliminating the need for consumers to set up and configure a separate wireless home network. Intel will also include a High Definition Audio capability the Pentium 4 Processor Grantsdale platform to provide full Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound for an outstanding home theater experience. At IDF, Intel and Dolby Laboratories announced they are working together to extend the CE sound and entertainment experience to the PC based on Intel High Definition Audio.
Other designs underway include “Kessler,” a slim form factor, high-performance PC connected to a television screen, and “Sandow,” a prototype reference design that features “instant on/visually off” capability and an HDTV PVR. http://www.intel.com
