802.11a was published in 1999 but did not see any commercial use until 2001. It operates as an eight-channel, 54 Mbps standard in the 5 GHz spectrum (5.15 to 5.35 GHz). The range is up to 300 meters, and it will support 512 users per access point. 802.11a appears to be the more robust standard: It has a relatively clear frequency band and greater range and supports more users. It was late to market, however, and still is not in widespread use. Wireless today generally means the b standard. 802.11a was not initially supported in Europe.

The 802.11g standard still has not been given final approval. Look for release this summer. 802.11g operates in the same crowded 2.4 GHz frequency band as 802.11b. Using OFDM (Ortho-gonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), 802.11g will support transmission rates up to 54 Mbps. It suffers the same three-channel limitation as the b standard. A nice feature of 802.11g is it is backwards compatible with 802.11b. My current 802.11b PCMCIA card will operate in an 802.11g access point at the lower (11 Mbps) rate.
I warned you it was confusing. The saving grace is most new wireless chipsets are multinode; they will support all existing 802.11 protocolsa, b, or g. Thus, you can equip your road warriors, and they will be able to access all flavors of wireless networkwell, almost all. There still are some proprietary standards out there as well as Bluetooth.

So, Whats a Centrino?
Good question. Sounds like one of those Japanese automobile manufacturers made-up names. Heres what Intel tells us: Centrino is a blend of the words center and neutrino. The name brings to mind scientific concepts that make this name sound very active and alive. The new name suggests a small, fast, powerful device. OK, as I recall a neutrino is a stable leptonic neutral elementary particle with zero rest mass and spin 1/2 that travels at the speed of light. Makes sense to me.

The truth is that Centrino is a combination of the mobile Pentium M processor, the 855 chipset, and an Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 LAN MiniPCI adapter.

The Processor
Intel has taken the right direction in optimizing the processor for portable use rather than speeding up the clock. The Pentium M was known as Banias during development (Banias is a town in Israel, containing a spring said to be the source of the Jordan River). This chip is based on Pentium III architecture with some P4-like features. It has a 400 MHz system bus and an onboard 1 MB L2 cache that should make up for slower processor speeds. Slower speeds are, of course, dictated by a desire to reduce energy consumption.

The Pentium M in Centrino comes in processing speeds ranging from 1.30 GHz to 1.06 GHz, at prices ranging from $292 to $720, respectively. The mobile technology also is available in low-voltage processor speeds of 1.10 GHz and 900 MHz, at $345 and $324 per 1,000 units. Those prices include the processor, chipset, and WLAN. These chips have advanced energy-saving designs. The most used instructions can be stored in the 1 MB cache. SpeedStep built-in logic predicts what the next task will be so it can begin that task or power down between clock cycles. These things must be energy efficient. I saw one review that claimed an IBM ThinkPad T40 equipped with a Pentium M tested out at seven hours on battery. Intel claims five hours. Thats not too shabby.

The second part of the Centrino package is the 855 chipset. The 855PM is a discrete memory controller hub that contains an AGP4X interface and Intel Stable Image Technology. The 855GM is an integrated graphics memory controller hub. The chipset provides USB 2.0 as well as backward compatibility for USB 1.0 and includes Intel Extreme Graphics 2 technology. The 855 chips provide dynamic input and output disabling for processor system bus and memoryin other words, they are smart enough to shut down the bus or memory when not needed to conserve power. They are both designed for the M processor and have a 400 MHz low-power bus and support for up to 2 GB of 266 MHz DDR.

I Want My Wireless
The raison dtre for this thing is wireless, and the third component of Centrino is the PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection. Intel presently is selling these only with 802.11b support. It plans to ship dual-band a/b capability (code name Calexico) mid-year 2003. Intel plans to support the 802.11g standard once the specification is ratified and interoperability testing is under way. That puts Intel at some disadvantage. Some manufacturers are building laptops with dual-band wireless adapters now. The Intel wireless connection obviously is optimized to work with the other Centrino components. That includes Intelligent Scanning Technology, which reduces power by controlling the frequency of scanning for access points. There are five available power settings allowing users to tailor their performance/power profiles. Security is provided with IEEE 802.11X standards, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), and Cisco Leap.

Security always has been an issue with wireless. Obviously, a wireless signal can be intercepted by any device within the broadcast range of the transmitter. I know all about the fear of war driversmisguided individuals who roam city streets armed with a laptop, a Wi-Fi card, and a homemade antenna. Come onget a life or a job or both. Maps of open access points are readily available online. Fine. I do not advocate the use of wireless networks to replace secure hard-wired internal systems.

But we will get better security for Wi-Fi. And for most use, current security is adequate. I have an 802.11b network at home. It is unsecured. When my son visits, he walks in the front door, fires up his laptop, and can VPN into his secure corporate network in minutes. I can send e-mail from my patio using my PDA. When I go to work and turn on my 802.11b laptop, it recognizes the encrypted access point there and automatically logs me in to my corporate network. For someone to hack onto my company network via Wi-Fi, he or she first would have to be close enough to an access point to be observed. That individual next would need to discern which channel to use for attempting a log-on, guess the encryption scheme, and then use a password cracker to find the key. That just gets the hacker on the network. He or she still doesnt have access to anything without having a user name and password on top of all the above. Come on. Wireless networks are more secure than the U.S. Postal Service. Have you ever heard of anyone going geek?

Back to Reality
The bottom line is we work in the insurance industry (at least a good percentage of us do), and why should we care about Centrino? It really isnt about Centrinoalthough Intel has done a very nice job of integrating technology, and I expect this will be very successful. It is about a paradigm shift in computinga paradigm shift to which we will all need to adjust. Just as cell phones allow us to communicate from virtually any civilized spot on the globe, wireless networks and hot spots will allow us instant access to networks from any civilized spot on the globe (or at least anywhere there is a Starbucks, which is arguably the same thing). We will soon possess the ability to be wired 24/7 anywhere.

We all have knowledge workers who travel as part of their jobs. They must call on customers and vendors and interact with other segments of the enterprise. It only makes sense that these workers be equipped with portable computers that will allow easy access to networks wherever they are. McDonalds and Starbucks are just the beginning. Soon wireless hot spots will be available everywhere. Likewise, the intelligent corporation will install wireless access points in conference rooms and other common areas. Even if you will wait to be second or third movers on adopting wireless for your business, you at least need to provide access to Wi-Fi for your mobile work force. In Centrino, Intel has provided a pretty slick package available today to provide that access.