With communications becoming wireless, it makes sense to merge development group of both. Intel is doing this – it it is combining its communications-related businesses into a single organization: the Intel Communications Group (ICG).

Intel’s communications efforts – providing building blocks for the communications infrastructure and the cellular and handheld computing market segments – have been divided between ICG and the Wireless Communications and Computing Group (WCCG). The newly combined organization will be headed by Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president and general manager of ICG.

ICG will assume WCCG’s product portfolio in addition to its current focus on network processors, wireless LAN chipsets, Gigabit networking solutions, network cards and related infrastructure technologies. WCCG products include processors based on Intel XScale technology along with chipsets, reference designs, software and other technologies built around the Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture (Intel PCA). Products also include Intel's flash memory business and digital signal processing activities.

Separately, the company announced that Ron Smith, Intel senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s WCCG unit, will retire early next year. Smith, 53, is a 26-year veteran of the company. He led Intel’s movement into CMOS with development of the process for manufacturing Intel’s 80386 processor. Smith went on to lead Intel’s embedded processor and PCI components divisions. More recently, as general manager of WCCG he led Intel’s efforts in flash memory and processors based on Intel XScale technology for the cellular and handheld computing market segments.