Original 45nm Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture

The Technical Challenges of Transitioning Intel® PRO/Wireless Solutions to a Half-Mini Card

CONCLUSION

The trend to make things smaller with more functionality continues to be a key driving force for Intel PRO/Wireless solutions. As shown in this paper, the technology challenges of moving to a half Mini Card form factor have been met and or exceeded.

This quantum leap, when compared with the Wi-Fi solution offered in the original CMT platforms of 2004, has significantly changed the platform content and capability. The new board area, which is less than one quarter of the original board size and greater than six times in functionality (two times the bands supported and three times the number of transmit and receive chains), proves that such silicon and board challenges can be met.

This shrinkage of the Intel PRO/Wireless 5000 Wi-Fi 802.11n solution down to a Half-Mini Card form factor while increasing functionality has enabled our OEM customers to incorporate multiple add-in cards and increase wireless functionalities inside their latest Montevina CMT platforms. The OEMs can now offer higher-performing and smaller platform solutions compared with the previous-generation Santa Rosa CMT platforms.

Undoubtedly, the Half-Mini Card will become the industry standard form factor going forward. We expect the competition to also align with this trend. Although it is unclear how much our competitors will be able to integrate their solutions into this new form factor, Intel has taken it upon itself to be amongst the first to drive and adopt this new form factor standard from concept to product. The introduction of the 5300 series of Intel PRO/Wireless solutions, which is a full Dual-Band 3×3 MIMO IEEE 802.11n solution using this new Half-Mini Card form factor as part of the Montevina CMT platforms, is a testament to the Intel “Leap Ahead” corporate motto.

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