Intel's "Radio Free Intel" concept is not geared to provide propaganda to third world countries over the radio waves, but rather it describes the company's new, ambitious R&D efforts into the radio-frequency (RF), software-defined radio, and related wireless sectors.

The concept will also drive "Moore's Law" and one day connect PCs, cellular phones, and other devices via RF, software-defined radios, and related technologies. Devised by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, "Moore's Law" is a popular axiom that says the transistor count of a processor will double every 18 months.

Intel's "Radio Free Intel" concept somewhat resembles the long-awaited cell-phone-on-a-chip product, that is, the ability to integrate an entire cellular phone on a single device. Today's cellular phones do not consist of a single-chip device. Instead, they consist of hundreds of components, including the baseband processor, RF, power amplifiers, and others.

In Intel's "Radio Free Intel" concept, however, the company takes the cell-phone-on-a-chip vision a step further. Future processors will one day integrate RF devices, software-defined radios, and technologies, thereby enabling PCs and other devices to be connected over high-speed wireless local-area networks, said Pat Gelsinger, chief technology officer at Intel, during a keynote address at IDF on Thursday here.

"When I say 'Radio Free Intel,' I mean that radios are integrated into every product," Gelsinger said.

Within Intel Labs, in fact, Gelsinger said that Intel has demonstrated a "complete radio technology" on a single chip at 10-GHz--based on traditional silicon. "We are talking about silicon, not silicon-germanium or gallium-arsenide," he said.

Intel is also conducting research in software-defined or configurable radios--in silicon, according to Gelsinger. For years, the military have used software-defined radios to enable systems to support multiple frequencies and protocols, but this technology has yet to be realized in the commercial markets.