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Intel WiMax & Montevina
Blogs by Felix Lopez
flopez@wimax.com
We read recently how Beceem received investment from Intel and plans to work
with ODMs to develop WiMax enabled devices. Now let's take a look more closely
at what Intel is doing on the platform side.
Intel's recently announced the mid-2008 introduction of an entirely new mobile
platform, called Montevina. Montevina is the fifth-generation Centrino platform.
The announcement fits quite nicely into the future of WiMax and demonstrates
Intel's foresight. Think of Montevina as the new mobile Centrino compliment of
your desktop but from a network centric management perspective. It is designed
for mobility and with much more "virtualization, mobile management, and
efficiency capabilities".
Montevina will offer multi-mode Wi-Fi/WiMAX adapters including a single Wi-Fi
(802.11n) if needed. This means that the OEMs/ODMs, and the mobile workforce can
look forward to seamless connection to Wi-Fi and WiMax networks. It also means
that network managers will be provided tools for better remote management.
The Montevina platform places its lineage on the Intel Santa Rosa platform. The
Santa Rosa is the original Centrino. But Montevina will be based on Intel's
upcoming 45-nm quad-core Penryn processor. The system is based on the new the
Intel Robeson 2.0 architecture. Robeson was designed and built for mobility. The
Robeson architecture will enable mobile laptops to use less battery power, and
crunch data better and faster with less latency - an important feature in the
802.16 environments.
Where does Microsoft fit into the picture? We all know that organizations want
to provide better remote device management and that Windows Vista offers a bevy
of remote management tools. Intel designed the Robson 2.0 to support Vista's
instant on and off technologies. For those organizations using Microsoft, the
Montevina platform (laptops) will give the IT managers the ability to better
manger their untethered mobile assets. Just think of a truck fleet but in this
case a PC fleet. Fleet managers need to provide end user support in a remote
environment. Montevina will enable this in a battery efficient energy savings
WiFi/Wimax enabled environment.
Intel Active Management Technology is part of the Montevina roadmap. This means
that future mobile devices will more readily integrate a Windows Vista type
mobile application from remote server managers - in a thin or thick client
approach.
In my opinion the Intel announcement indicate this large manufacture is alive
and kicking. Furthermore the trend demonstrates the continued importance of the
"WINTEL" relationship and how WiMax integrates with ubiquitous Microsoft
operating systems; specifically Windows Vista.
Trained readers should continue to trace the development of Montevina and trends
in the enterprise environment. Network operators of WiMax systems using
Microsoft operating systems such as Windows Vista will want to see a WiMax
enabled integrated architecture.
References:
1.
http://www.beceem.com/news/releases.shtml
2.
http://ipcommunications.tmcnet.com/hot-topics/wireless/articles/
3.
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20070417corp_a.htm?iid=search
4.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5919
5.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-07IntelSMSPR.mspx
6.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino
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