Intel last week detailed a range of initiatives that will change the way computers look and the way they are used over the next few years.

The silicon giant's influence will be felt everywhere from smartphones to datacentre servers via networking, I/O, expansion and graphics.

At the Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, the firm endorsed several burgeoning technologies. Most of these are likely to succeed thanks to Intel's huge development budget and power to influence.

Wireless was at the heart of several presentations. Centrino notebooks, due to launch on 12 March, were shown by several vendors including Toshiba and Acer.

The mostly thin and lightweight laptops offer the new Pentium-M processor, 802.11b wireless networking and power management capabilities that Intel said would give up to six hours of battery life.

The Centrino launch is likely to be complemented by infrastructure announcements, which include major new Wi-Fi hotspots for public access to wireless LANs. If completed in time, these hotspots could include London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, Intel said.

Mobile PC designs are set to change significantly in the next two years.

The PC Card slot, a staple of laptops for over a decade, will be phased out in favour of a new expansion option, codenamed Newcard. Two Newcard devices, such as 1.8in hard drives, will fit side by side into a slot the size of a PC Card.

"PC Card was developed 10 years ago when components were bigger and system prices were heftier," said Graham Kirby, manager for advanced mobile concepts at Intel. "Newcard will take cost and space out of the design," he added.

Newcard slots will connect to the PCI Express bus expected in PCs next year - an arrival that will spell the end of the AGP graphics interface, Intel confirmed. The company also displayed a prototype transportable design with detachable keyboard and "sneak PC" external LCD for quick access to data even when the case is shut.

Intel will also launch a series of updates for larger caches and more energy-efficient mobile, desktop and server chips. The firm provided more detail on Prescott, a successor to today's Pentium 4, which will include support for La Grande, Intel's method for making transactions more secure by protecting specific processes. Prescott will have a 6MB Level 1 cache and will be introduced at over 3GHz, but is expected to scale to 4GHz or 5GHz.

Further into the future, Intel technology will support mesh networks that use multiple access points to boost wireless bandwidth and range.

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