Intel Corp. Tuesday launched a series of products at the Computex show in Taipei that are intended to keep the chipmaking giant’s technologies at the forefront of consumers’ tech experiences.

They included the official launch of its Compute Card, its powerful Core X-series of processors, a wireless HTC Vive VR headset and the company’s Home Wi-Fi Development Kit. Here’s a look at each:

Intel Home Wi-Fi Development Kit

By 2020, the average household will have 35 or more connected devices, according to MarketsandMarkets Research Private Ltd. In order to deal with this growing number and aid in the development of an intelligent, context-aware home network infrastructure, Intel introduced its Home Wi-Fi Development Kit at Computex.

Based on Intel’s Home Wi-Fi SoC IRX200 and its Home Wi-Fi Chipset WAV500 Series, the development kit will allow developers to create a dynamic, adaptable network of gateways and intelligent range extenders.

The network of gateways can adjust dynamically to ensure consistent connectivity, regardless of the number of devices or bandwidth demands.

Intel also announced that several service providers, including Asus, Deutsche Telekom AG, Netgear Inc. and Shanghai Phicomm Communication Co. Ltd., are introducing new Intel-based routers and gateways. The new gateways will use Intel’s Wi-Fi offering that allows up to 128 connected devices to share the same bandwidth simultaneously while continuing to maintain high-speed connections.

Compute Card

Intel first introduced its Compute Card at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The Compute Card is basically an entire personal computer and packs an Intel system-on-a-chip, memory, storage and networking capabilities into a credit-card sized device.

Manufacturers would be able to slip the Compute Card into a host device, like a refrigerator or TV, to give it computing capabilities.

Intel officially launched the Compute Card at Computex this week together with a list of partners. Partners showing off how they will use the Compute Card in their devices include digital signage from Sharp Corp. while LG Electronics Inc. is sticking the card into its monitors to turn them into all-in-ones. Intel’s most well-known partners, Lenovo Group Ltd., HP Inc. and Dell Inc., aren’t ready to showcase their products that will use the Compute Card.

The Compute Card will be available in four variants. The Celeron N3450 processor and Pentium N4200 processor comes with 4GB DDR3 memory, 64GB eMMC storage and Intel Wireless-AC 7265. The 7th-generation Core i3 (m3-7Y30) processor and 7th-generation Core i5 vPro (i5 7Y57) processor comes with 4GB DDR3 memory, 128GB SSD storage and Intel Wireless-AC 8265.

The Compute Card will start shipping in August. While the design kit, including guides and reference designs, for developers is now available.

Wireless VR headset

During its keynote presentation, the company also demonstrated a wireless HTC Vive VR headset that is powered by WiGig Wi-Fi technology.

WiGig, Intel’s Wireless Gigabit 802.11ad standard platform, uses a 60 gigahertz, interference free, band to deliver instant, high-speed wireless docking, up to 7Gps. The wireless accessory for the HTC Vive headset will sit on top of the user’s head and is expected to have a latency of less than 7 milliseconds.

Intel didn’t release any details of the actual hardware involved in the wireless Vive upgrade. More detail about the headset is expected at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (commonly referred to as E3) taking place next month starting June 14. Intel did announce at Computex that the technology will only be ready for consumers in 2018.

The VR Industry is expected to boom in the coming years, according to market research CCS Insight Ltd. The company forecasts that the number of augmented reality and VR devices sold will increase to 24 million in 2018, up from 2.5 million in 2015. While the VR market will be worth more than $4 billion.

For HTC, a strong focus for the company seems to be cable-free VR. At its I/O Conference earlier this month, Google Inc. announced that it was working with HTC on a standalone VR headset as part of its Daydream project. The headset will feature new tracking technology called WorldSense, which will enable positional tracking. It will also not require a smartphone or to be tethered to a personal computer to operate. According to HTC’s teaser page, the standalone VR with Daydream is expected later this year.   

Core i9 processor

Intel also introduced its new Core X-series of processors, including its flagship model – the 18-core, 36-thread Intel i9-7980XE. The new chip is Intel’s answer to Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen Threadripper chip.

With an eye-watering price tag of $1,999, the top-of-the-range i9 processor will be reserved for gamers, mixed reality users, video editors, programmers and performance enthusiasts.

Other announcements so far at Computex, Asia’s biggest tech show of the year, include new ZenBooks and VivoBooks from AsusTek Computer Inc., a new mesh networking platform from Qualcomm Inc., as well as early announcements from Acer Inc., including a budget gaming laptop. Nvidia Corp. also announced Tuesday it has signed up four major server makers to use its artificial intelligence data center design.

Images: Intel