Intel Rethinks The Radio
By Ron Grunsby
While computer chips keep getting smaller, faster, and more energy efficient, radio communications devices have not kept pace. Because RF components are analog-based, shrinking them compromises their performance. Intel is trying to solve this problem by creating an all-digital radio.
At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco earlier this month, Intel CTO Justin Rattner discussed Rosepoint, a "Moore's Law Radio" that can be made smaller without losing signal strength. The all-digital radio follows Moore's Law by scaling in area and energy efficiency with digital chip processes.
Rosepoint is an experimental 32 nm system on a chip (SoC) with a Wi-Fi transceiver and two Intel Atom cores on the same die. To create a digital radio, Intel had to reinvent ways to build parts such as digital phase modulators, power amplifiers, and frequency synthesizers. The synthesizer cancels interference, which allows Intel to combine the Wi-Fi radio with the Atom cores in Rosepoint. Traditionally, Wi-Fi radios have been housed on separate connectivity chips.
Rattner said Rosepoint is the result of 10 years of research in an attempt to combine digital processing with analog radio signals. At an Intel Developer Forum in 2002, Intel's Pat Gelsinger envisioned a future where all chips would include integrated communications.
“In the future, if it computes, it connects,” Rattner said. “From the simplest embedded sensors to the most advanced cloud datacenters, we're looking at techniques to allow all of them to connect without wires." No timetable has been revealed as to when Rosepoint will be included in actual products, such as smartphones and tablet computers.