Intel today announced shipments of its first WiMAX product, the Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface chipset. Previously codenamed "Rosedale," the system-on-a-chip can send and receive wireless broadband signals from base stations up to 20 miles away, and is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard.

"This is a big deal for us," said Ron Peck, director of marketing for Intel's WiMax Group, in a conference call. "We think [WiMAX] is the way to get to the next billion broadband users."

According to Intel, the PRO/Wireless 5116 is the first product of its kind optimized for modems and residential gateways. Peck stressed that while Intel's initial WiMAX products will not target the base-station market, that strategy would change over the long haul.

"As we look forward to the next couple generations of silicon, you should expect our base-station presence to grow," he said.

Although the 5116 is designed to maintain broadband connections between fixed antennae, future iterations will support the 802.16e "mobile WiMAX" specification. Just last week, Intel said it was working to solve existing incompatibilities between 802.16e and 802.16-2004.

Products based on the PRO/Wireless 5116 are expected to ship by the end of the year. Already, equipment vendors including Alvarion, Proxim, Redline and ZiMax have announced agreements to use Intel silicon in their WiMAX products.