Intel's Newest Linux Driver Is For Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation

[Ronshere]

I am pretty sure this is really aimed at military useage.

[ed31337]

E.g. USB 3.0 Gen 1 (5GBit/s) is known to heavily interfere with WLAN.

Yup. I've got a Western Digital USB 3.0 portable hard drive that totally messes up WiFi and even interferes with my Logitech VX Nano 2.4GHz wireless mouse. For the reason, I normally hook it up through a USB 2.0 hub (when I don't need high-speed data transfers) located further away.

[loganj]

this is coming from intel who is know to cripple their wifi adapters (no ap on 5ghz)

[f0rmat]

I am pretty sure this is really aimed at military useage.

Perhaps...but IMHO most modern militaries will not probably utilize wifi in their tactical and operational level communications. It is too short range, subject to spoofing and intercept, and has limited bandwidth compared to other forms of communication. They tend to prefer wired LAN and, when not available or practical, they utilize encrypted electromagnetic communications that will not utilize wifi, but other medium and long range forms of communications (HF, Satellite, etc.).

[discordian]

Idiots burned 5g antennas because they believe it causes/aids Covid. Little do they know its been Intel's ddr ram controllers.
*pictures Intel's ceo with a hairless cat going "muha haha muha ah ah"

[f0rmat]

"Welcome to the world of analog EE, software people"

Quantum electrodynamics can be a real b**ch...and it often gives less than a rat's *ss about code.

[arQon]

BIOSes have supported "Spread Spectrum" for basically the same reasons since the dawn of time. What's the piece that makes this noteworthy/special at all? Is it just having it driven by something slightly more user-reachable?

[StefanBruens]

BIOSes have supported "Spread Spectrum" for basically the same reasons since the dawn of time. What's the piece that makes this noteworthy/special at all? Is it just having it driven by something slightly more user-reachable?

The spread spectrum setting you have seen is about the various CPU, DDR, ... clocks. The clock generator chips supply e.g. 33MHz, 100MHz, 125MHz ... (+/)- 0.5%. You have to keep the rate, especially when it is some clock for external interfaces.

This is about the clock for the switching DC/DC converters. The switching frequency can be varied by +/- 5% without affecting the functionality or efficiency. E.g. a switching converter with +/- 0.5% spread spectrum will generate harmonic noise at ~2.4 GHz with a width of 24MHz. By altering the switching frequency as above the noise can be moved down or up 120 MHz, steering it away from the very weak to be received signal. To be effective, this has to incorporate the current receive channel (Wifi is Time Division Duplex, while WWAN often is Frequency Division Duplex).

[arQon]

The spread spectrum setting you have seen is about the various CPU, DDR, ... clocks.

Thanks - even I understood that explanation, so it must be good.