Intel outlines silicon radios at IDF

Intel will integrate silicon radios into future Intel chips to offer wireless radio communication capabilities to any device powered by them.

The radios, based on the company's low-power complementary metal oxide semiconductor manufacturing process, and expected over the next few years are just one of a series of future technologies outlined at Intel's Developers' Forum in San Jose.

Intel says research into integrated silicon and silicon nanotechnology will extend the life of Moore's Law well into the future and make electronic devices simpler, cheaper and easier to use.

Moore's law states that the transistor density on integrated circuits doubles every couple of years, leading to increased performance and lower costs.

The research aims to lower dramatically the cost of optical networks by integrating component technologies into low-cost silicon building blocks.

"We believe that integrated silicon will deliver innovative, ubiquitous and low-cost technologies to enable a world in which all computers will communicate and all communication devices will compute," said Patrick Gelsinger, Intel's chief technology officer.

Intel senior vice president Sunlin Chou said the company was also collaborating with universities on long-term nanotechnology projects - including carbon nanotubes and silicon nanowires - to provide enhanced transistor performance.

But Chou warned that the practical use of nanotubes or nanowires as computing devices is at least ten years away.

"Our research goes ... to evaluate longer-term options that will continue to renew silicon technology and extend its scalability into the next decade," he said.