The big giant today announced a partnership with Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek to “develop, certify and support 5G modem solutions” for notebook computers.
Intel and MediaTek join forces to bring 5G to computers and laptops
The program is expected to deliver its first products in 2021. Intel will prepare the specifications and MediaTek will manufacture the modems that Intel will validate and promote to OEM partners.
As a result, Qualcomm will be more likely to be the first to offer 5G on a laptop. At the Computex conference in May, they presented the Project Limitless Notebook in collaboration with Lenovo. The PC had a Snapdragon x55 5G modem in combination with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx processor.
In addition, Intel and MediaTek are working with Fibocom to develop M.2 modules designed to work with Intel client platforms. MediaTek today also introduces its dimensity line of 5G systems on one chip (SoCs).
5G networks promise to revolutionize telecommunications in the coming years. This type of connectivity enables speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) or 10,000 Mbps. Current 4G/LTE networks reach 1,000 Mpps. But it’s not just about speed, it’s also about latency in communication. The 5G networks have a latency of only 1ms compared to 200ms of the 4G.
It seems that there will be an intense race between Intel, MediaTek and Qualcomm to meet notebook manufacturers’ 5G connection requirements. As the first products are planned for 2021, it is possible that the 5G network boom will take place this year.
In any case, this is not the first time we’ve heard of 5G laptops. In fact, as early as February 2018, consideration was being given to bringing 5G laptops from Intel onto the market in 2019, but in the end, this was not the case. Let’s also remember that in the middle of this year Intel sold its smartphone modem division to Apple, although it is still developing these chips for other products.
Source: MediaTek