Intel Announces 802.11n Built-in Wireless Card for Notebooks

[Andrew Baxter]

Intel today announced the 4965 agn wireless Mini PCIe card to provide built-in 802.11n for notebooks. The 4965agn is an upgrade to the existing 3945abg wireless card shipping with Centrino notebooks. 802.11n will offer faster and greater wireless range.

The 4965agn card is based on the draft 802.11n Wi-Fi specification. Intel claims the new Wireless-N technology will offer up to five times the performance and twice the wireless range as existing 802.11g wireless. Intel is also claiming this 4965 card will offer greater battery life than notebooks with the existing Centrino 3945abg card.

Intel 4965agn wireless card that will ship with Vista notebooks (view large image)

Intel has also announced a program called "Connect with Centrino". Through this program, Intel has worked with leading access point (AP) vendors including Asus, Belkin, Buffalo, D-Link and Netgear to better ensure compatibility and performance. Intel's wireless-N product is certified to work with multiple APs and as these AP's successfully pass Intel's rigorous real-world testing certification criteria, they will display a "Connect with Centrino" identifier on their product packaging, allowing consumers a choice for connecting with more confidence.

Intel will be putting this verification sticker on 802.11n wireless router products made by manufacturers such as Netgear that pass the Intel testing for compatibility with the 4965agn wireless card (view large image)

Having wireless-N technology will improve the home network experience – especially when multiple people access their wireless network simultaneously to share things such as audio and video entertainment. 802.11n will also reduce "dead spots" in the home. Thankfully, the 802.11n wireless card is backwardly compatible with all older 802.11 a/b/g wireless access points as well, so you won't have to run out and buy a new 802.11n router if your new notebook has this 4965agn wireless card.

The 4965agn Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N technology as well as the "Connect with Centrino" identifier will be delivered in conjunction with new notebook computers powered by Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology from noteboook makers such as Acer, Asus, Gateway and Toshiba that are being distributed with Microsoft Windows Vista beginning in late January and other manufacturers will follow.

Here are the specs for the Intel 4965 agn card:

• Dimensions (H x W x D) 2.00 in x 1.18 in x 0.13 in (50.95 mm x 30.00 mm x 3.30 mm)
• Weight 7.2g
• Antenna Interface Connector Hirose U.FL-R-SMT mates with cable connector U.FL-LP-066
• Antenna Diversity On-board diversity support for systems designed with two or three antennas
• Radio ON/OFF Control Supported in both hardware and software
• Connector Interface Mini Card form factor, based on PCIe electrical interface
• LEDs Output Single LED (as per Mini Card specification)
• Operating Temperature 0 to +80° Celsius
• Humidity Non-Operating 50% to 90% RH non-condensing (at temperatures of 25° C to 35° C)
• Operating Systems Microsoft Windows Vista 32/64-bit
• Wi-Fi Alliance Wi-Fi Certified for 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, WMM, WPA, and WPA2
• Microsoft WHQL YES
• IEEE WLAN Standard IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Draft-N1 (targeting 802.11n when available)
  Architecture Infrastructure or ad hoc (peer-to-peer)
• Roaming Supports seamless roaming between respective access points (802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11a/b/g, and 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N1)
• Security
  • Authentication WPA6 and WPA26, 802.1X
  • Authentication Protocols EAP-TLS, PEAP-TLS, and PEAP-MSCHAPv2
  • Encryption 64-bit and 128-bit WEP, AES-CCMP, TKIP (802.11a/b/g only)
  • Product Safety UL, C-UL, CB (IEC 60590)

Video

Intel created a video to show off how they do their testing on wireless cards, it is included here for your viewing pleasure:

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[Brigand21]

Thanks for the Info, very interesting!

One question though.. On many notebooks, like my W3j for example, the wireless button requires some proprietry software ( Atk110101 drivers ) in order to function correctly. and even with the latest intel wifi drivers the wireless button does not work. My question is, would Asus be interested in editing the Atk software to function with this new card? or will we need to look to 3rd party software in order to use the wireless buttons with a modified internal wifi card?

Personally i'm guessing Asus won't want to help as they won't be profiting and warranties will be voided, no doubt, by undertaking the upgrade. any ideas?

Edit: Also, speaking more generally, are the antenna connections for these cards part of the card interface at the botton, or are they the solder contacts at the top of the card?

[chrisyano]

4965 doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as 3945 LOL. I'm still waiting for the actual n-standard to be ratified...if it doesn't keep getting pushed back.

Looks to be a nice upgrade though in the meantime.

[lilredfoxie]

Would this new card be able to fit in my E1505? it looks like its got 3 antenna ports rather than two

[Andrew Baxter]

I don't know what the technical details are on how easy it would be to upgrade to this card, I can refer you to Intel's site though which might have more of the information you're looking for, here's that link:

http://www.intel.com/network/connect...n/overview.htm

[Andrew Baxter]

Would this new card be able to fit in my E1505? it looks like its got 3 antenna ports rather than two

According to the documentation it supports 2 or 3 antenna notebooks.

[TehStranger]

According to the documentation it supports 2 or 3 antenna notebooks.

But without a 3rd antenna connector, would we be able to make full use of the wireless-n feature? My guess is that we would be lacking something if we only hooked up 2.

[stamar]

But without a 3rd antenna connector, would we be able to make full use of the wireless-n feature? My guess is that we would be lacking something if we only hooked up 2.

thats a really good question i had never heard about until right now.

If not I wonder how difficult it is to install the 3d antenae, where its sold and if its different than the other two.

I mean.... the other antenaes are just wires

[Kamzu]

how many antennas does the w3j come with?

[Red Scorpion]

But without a 3rd antenna connector, would we be able to make full use of the wireless-n feature? My guess is that we would be lacking something if we only hooked up 2.

you will probably be able to disable the connectors as you want by going to device manager and changing things from there.

Antennas are very important for an optimum wifi performance

This is a cool powerful wifi card, they keep getting better...