Wireless technology to rival cable

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- An emerging wireless communications technology called WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet connections, will rival DSL and cable as the preferred way to connect homes and businesses to the Internet, says Intel Corp.

"I think that WiMAX could be to DSL and cable what cellular was to landline (phones) not too long ago," Intel President Paul Otellini said at a technical conference hosted by the Santa Clara, California-based company.

Intel has begun shipping samples of WiMAX chips to customers and has committed to building WiMAX into its Centrino notebook computer chips starting in 2006, Otellini said.

The company stands to profit if customers also back WiMAX, since Intel likely would become a lead supplier.

Intel's embrace of Wi-Fi, another wireless technology with a much smaller range, made wireless connectivity nearly a standard feature in portable PCs. Otellini said WiMAX shares many attributes with Wi-Fi, including low cost, that could make it a runaway hit as well.

Taking heat from Wall Street over continuing product delays and a disappointing revenue forecast, Intel found refuge this week in the company of 5,500 technology developers assembled at the show, called the Intel Developer Forum.

Hardware developers and software writers play a key role in Intel's future. Intel once focused on the narrow goal of building the fastest PC chips at the lowest possible cost, but its future depends more on convincing customers to build its chips into a new wave of consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, and mobile computers.

In addition to the wireless communications capabilities, Intel has promoted an anti-piracy technology called DTCP/IP, which protects content sent over home networks from theft.

Intel pushed to have the technology built into the Windows operating system, and sent "legions" of lawyers to movie studios to convince them to offer films to online services, Otellini said.

With the technology developed and the support received from content owners, Otellini said, Intel now hopes to profit from a new series of devices called "entertainment PCs," which stream movies and music to devices around the home, and have at their core the same Intel microprocessors that power home and business PCs.

Also at the show, Intel matched its rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., in showing off chips that have the power of two computers in a single package. Both companies have plans to introduce their first "dual-core" chips next year.

Separately, Intel said it had hired Eric Kim, the former head of marketing at South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics, as its new vice president of sales and marketing.

Otellini told reporters the move was intended to bolster Intel's push into supplying chips for consumer electronics.