PC cables may be a thing of the past with Intel’s new wireless chargers

Intel’s post-Broadwell next-generation platform — codenamed Skylake — will lead to Intel reference designs that eliminate all cables from the PC, the chipmaker announced Wednesday. On stage at the Computex show here, Intel’s Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group, demonstrated wireless display, docking and charging features that will close the loop on the final few mandatory cables in the typical PC environment. The high-speed WiGig standard will be used as the short range “docking” technology, instantly creating a connection to a screen and peripherals when a device is moved within range and then swapping back out to standalone usage by just picking up and walking away. WiGig delivers speeds of up to 7Gbps. A truly wireless — and potentially tangle-free — PC has long been coveted, but the idea has been hampered by the practical need for connections with peripherals and the need for power. More recently, advances in areas such as wireless charging have made this more of a reality.