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]
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