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Intel wireless display tech coming to netbooks, tablets, phones

Will gain multi-room music streaming too

IDF 2011 Intel's Wireless Display - aka WiDi - technology is set to expand into music streaming and to a broader array of devices.

Intel's WiDi 2.0 currently works on notebooks equipped with a Sandy Bridge processor and any one of a number of Intel's Centrino-branded Wi-Fi cards.

When 'Cedar Trail', Intel's next netbook platform, ships later this year, it will get WiDi too.

Then, during 2012, the chip giant will roll the technology, designed to stream video content from a PC to a TV over Wi-Fi, to tablets and desktops based on its silicon.

Smartphones too, eventually, though their implementation of WiDi is "a step behind" that of tablets and desktops, said Scott Doenecke, an Intel Product Marketing Engineer, at Intel Developer Forum today.

In addition to video, WiDi will soon gain audio streaming, Doenecke said, initially on a one-to-one, beaming music to an as-yet-unreleased adaptor for hi-fi equipment and such, but soon after to up to eight adaptors for multi-room set-ups.

WiDi operates by setting up an ad hoc wireless personal area network (WPAN) and can connect to no more than eight devices, though the technology currently only supports streaming to one of them at once.

Accessory makers like Belkin and Netgear today offer WiDi devices that'll connect to a TV through an HDMI link, but Doenecke said Intel is working with TV manufacturers to integrate the technology into Wi-Fi capable tellies. Expect them to add the tech through Smart TV apps. ®

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