Semiconductor giant Intel, announced Wednesday that they have produced the technology to bring many futuristic gizmos to today's market. Currently, a wireless device is made up of several different chips, each entitled to their own task such as communications, memory and processing. Intel plans to integrate each of these aspects into one main semiconductor, enabling users to take advantage of faster performance in smaller wireless Internet devices. The company also stated intentions of bringing these new chips to consumers by the middle of next year.

According to Al Fazio, principal engineer for Intel's technology and manufacturing group, "What we're doing here is to take those various components and build them on a single process technology, all produced on a single wafer, a single chip and therefore all done in one facility."

With Intel's newly developed technology, many new devices can be created. Such things as video watch phones, cell phones combined with personal digital assistants and Internet-ready PDAs are within reach. While the technology is still experimental, Intel is not speculative about the capabilities of their research. Developers claim that the new chips will be up to 5 times more powerful than those seen in current wireless devices, and are capable of operating at speeds up to 1 gigahertz.

The new chip technology also significantly cuts down on battery usage. Cell phones which utilize the new semiconductor can run up to one month without requiring a charge.

What do you think; is this a major step forward for wireless devices, or just another technology doomed to experience the same fate as Bluetooth?