SmartRG, a Vancouver company that develops networking technologies for the connected home, plans to open a new office in downtown Portland next week. And at an industry showcase in Germany this week, it introduced new Wi-Fi products based on Intel technology.

SmartRG, which employs 65 altogether, will retain a 10-person office in Vancouver. But the majority of employees will move to the top floor of the nine-story Tiffany Center in Portland.

SmartRG emerged five years ago from a Vancouver software company called ClearAccess, which sold to Cisco in 2012. That deal split the company in two, with Cisco taking the larger part of the business while 15 engineers taking the rest to form SmartRG and focus on home networking gateways.

The connected home is a term for describing linked, computerized functions inside the home - such as music that plays across speakers in multiple rooms, connected lighting and home security, and energy management technology to control when heaters or air conditions go on and off.

Chief executive Jeff McInnis said fast internet connections have opened new possibilities for household computing, making it possible to offload some computing tasks to the cloud - the industry's term for large data centers full of powerful computers. That could enable cheaper, smaller devices in the home that still have robust capabilities.

SmartRG's new gateway is designed to improve Wi-Fi performance in the home, promising fast speeds, dependable connections and the ability to process Wi-Fi signals for up to 64 devices. It employs a pair of Intel Wi-Fi chipsets.

Intel is pursuing the connecting home and wireless technology as one of many strategies to reduce its reliance on its core PC market, which is in decline.

"We're very enthusiastic about our relationship with Intel, which really started over a year ago," McInnis said. "Now we're starting to see the fruits of that come forward."

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699