Home networking brouhaha

The technology to link up your Internet fridge to your television microwave to your PC has been around for while, but one of the big roadblocks has been that fact that there are too many standards being used in the market. IBM has one, Intel

The technology to link up your Internet fridge to your television microwave to your PC has been around for while, but one of the big roadblocks has been that fact that there are too many standards being used in the market. IBM has one, Intel supports another, and Microsoft try to keep everyone happy. Sure, some could say that home networking hasn't taken off because being able to talk to your fridge from work is an essentially stupid idea, but if things were tough before, Intel has now made it even tougher.

The world's biggest processor manufacturer has just done a backflip on networking standards, moving away from HomeRF, supporting by the likes of Compaq and Motorola, and is now in bed with the Wi-Fi standard. Intel's current range of AnyPoint products are all HomeRF compatible, but that will soon change - for worse, if you've already started building a home network with Intel products, as Wi-Fi is incompatible with HomeRF.

While it may seem that Intel's move couldn't have been anything but a decision made to split the market, Intel reps say otherwise. They claim that Intel is moving to unify the market behind one standard. Silly us for thinking otherwise.
Intel Corporation