Intel Acquires Killer Wi-Fi Owner Rivet Networks

[CyberTech]

Content source

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-acquires-rivet-networks-killer

Intel has acquired a rival in the Wi-Fi space. It purchased Rivet Networks, which makes the Killer-branded Wi-Fi cards and Ethernet in gaming laptops from Alienware, Dell, Lenovo, HP and more. No price was disclosed when Intel announced the news via press release.

The Rivet Networks team will join Intel's wireless solutions group, a subset of Intel's client computing group. Intel will roll the Killer brand into its own Wi-Fi lineup. Rivet also produced the Killer-branded software that minimized latency and allowed users to prioritize which software got access to bandwidth.

 

[XLR8R]

Killer had a troubled existence, from it's initial foundation as Bigfoot networks, to being a subsidiary of qualcomm atheros, then being spun off as independent while still being essentially a software stack on Atheros NICs. Recently they switched to using Intel NIC chips, and it appears Intel found it wise to acquire them. I think, through the years, this company had a few design wins on gamer and performance oriented motherboards and laptops, but now this is good for employees.

However, for users, this is bad - I have a couple of computers with Killer NICs (based on qualcomm atheros chips) and I doubt Rivet will offer drivers for their older Atheros chip based solutions after acquisition by Intel.