Intel's back. Can't keep it down. Back with 5G. Back in the game, back with modems... that have 'MediaTek' written on them

Intel today tapped up MediaTek to integrate 5G modems into next-generation PCs, due to hit the shelves in early 2021. This comes a few months after after Chipzilla very publicly walked away from making 5G smartphone modems: it quit that racket immediately after Apple and Qualcomm settled an almighty legal row over technology …

[Aitor 1]

2021

A bit late to the party..

[IGotOut]

Re: 2021

Most likely it would of been late 2019, but had to find a non-chinese supplier.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Re: 2021

Or timed perfectly. It seems likely that millimeter wave 5G will be a failure. Swapping LTE for 5G on existing bands could take years, if ever. There aren't enough 5G deployments on lower frequencies to know how well it works. T-Mo says 5G on 600 MHz goes live in December but I don't know what phone could use it.

[Julian 3]

Re: 2021

Two phones will work on 600MHz 5G. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G and the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G.

[HmmmYes]

5g modems shoved into PCs....

Hmm, Intel just wont let 'Native Signal Processing' die, will it?

[Chappy]

Nooooo

... except that it is not "Native Signal Processing". Native Signal Processing meant doing signal processing on the Intel CPU by incorporating SIMD instructions starting with MMX. This is adding a separate chip from MediaTek (which is probably full of ARM processors) so it is not Native Signal Processing.

[_LC_]

Huawei = evil, MediaTek = acceptable

Huawei surpassed US companies in every aspect = evil, whereas MediaTek is only cheepishly average = acceptable.

By now even the last of the backwoods has understood what hypocritical villains hide behind the three letters.

[Jon 37]

Re: Huawei = evil, MediaTek = acceptable

MediaTek = Taiwan, Huawei = China.

Taiwan are US allies, and have similar values to the rest of the "western" world. China:

* are engaged in a trade war with the US

* have very little respect for Western copyright, patents or secrets - especially in their huge domestic market (over time they've gotten better at respecting those in their exports).

* are trying to improve their military capability to allow them to defend against US forces in the region

* have been regularly accused of stealing US military technology

* claim that Taiwan belongs to them, but can't invade Taiwan because there's a big US navy presence there.

* regularly complain because the US regularly sends its warships through the South China Sea, which China claims belongs to China and the US claims is international waters

* regularly complain because the US regularly sends spy planes to fly just outside China's borders, to gather intelligence. These are occasionally harassed by Chinese fighters.

Hence, for the US (and the UK, as US allies), there's a huge difference between the two countries.

[W.S.Gosset]

Hear hear

...but...

> are engaged in a trade war with the US

"with the West", actually.

The US is the only country retaliating, and only after many decades of taking it. (ASIO was warning AU govt of major CN industrial espionage in the 70s)

But, for example, Europe accidentally designed China's startlingly-quickly-designed civilian airliners, presented to market at ~half or third the price. Australia is experiencing repeated nuts-in-vice penalties any time it steps out of line. Eg, all coal exports blocked for 3mths this year because Australia didn't do what it was told. Just last week, major would-be exporter blocked from CN market (got approval verbal and written, made MAJOR investment placing company at risk, licence suddenly withdrawn without explanation and kept withdrawn year+ while company gets increasingly debt-screwed), out of the blue gets CCP company purchase bid, over a barrel so accepts, paperwork finalised, and ... export licence suddenly appears! Company now worth a motza! Etc etc etfuckingc

But gradual realisation growing that something WILL need to be done.

And not just trade war but potentially real war. Example: earlier this year, China's southern army was ordered to be on war-footing/war-readiness.

[Chappy]

Cause and Effect

I don't the article gives the correct order or causality of events.

I don't think that Intel gave up on 5G because Apple suddenly feel back in love with Qualcomm.

I think that Apple was forced to eat humble pie and go crawling back to Qualcomm offering several fist fulls of dollars to buy peace because Intel could not deliver a competitive 5G solution in the timeframe required to keep iPhones competitive.

This is based on my memory of articles I read at the time, and as in all things, I might be wrong.