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Atheros Communications Inc., a leading developer of advanced

wireless solutions, has launched its AR2417 chip, the industry's most highly-integrated, cost-effective 802.11g solution for home gateways. The compact, single-chip solution is the newest member of the company's seventh-generation AR5007 family. With the AR2417, Atheros has enhanced its most popular selling solution ever, the AR5005G, through significantly increased integration while delivering Atheros-class wireless LAN (WLAN) performance the company's customers have come to expect. Through its industry-leading integration, the low cost, single-chip solution for mini-PCI and cardbus designs significantly reduces the rest of bill-of-materials (RBOM) by 30 percent to 45 percent compared to competitive solutions.



While Atheros' XSPAN draft 802.11n solutions are leading the technical innovation curve, the company is also investing in solutions that meet the continuing consumer demand for 802.11g wireless technologies pervasive in mainstream PCs and routers, and that are increasing in DSL gateways. Today, home gateway solutions based on 802.11g technology provide ample performance for basic data networking and web surfing, while the significantly greater throughput enabled by 802.11n networks is required to deliver triple-play services¡Xdata, video and voice¡Xthroughout the home. From a volume perspective, IDC projects that 802.11g will account for more than 60 percent of total WLAN units through 2008. Atheros expects the AR2417, a simple, low-cost Wi-Fi add-on to existing DSL and xDSL gateway products, to advance the adoption of its low-cost WLAN in home deployments.



Like its predecessor, the highly successful AR5005G, which has achieved more than $100 million in shipments since its introduction, the new AR2417 integrates the media access controller, baseband processor and 2.4GHz radio onto the single-chip design. In addition, the AR2417 now delivers greater value by integrating the low noise amplifier (LNA) and power amplifier (PA) onto the low cost, digital CMOS system-on-chip.



The AR2417 offers the added benefit of its innovative 2-layer mini-PCI design, the industry's smallest form factor at half the height of existing solutions. The new, compact size reduces the printed circuit board (PCB) cost by 50 percent and RBOM component count by more than 40 percent over the previous generation's 4-layer design. As a result of these enhancements, Atheros enables easy, low-cost implementation of Wi-Fi technology in existing DSL and xDSL residential gateway designs.



"More than half of all Wi-Fi products shipped worldwide are based on 802.11g, and we expect this trend to continue for the next few years. The AR2417 improves on our previous, incredibly popular 802.11g PCI solution to satisfy the demand for simple, low-cost, wireless data networking in the home," said Michael Stauffer, director of marketing for the carrier business with Atheros. "With the AR2417, we are delivering the ideal, turnkey 802.11g solution to our DSL customers to provide the easiest route to low-cost Wi-Fi in home gateways."



The AR2417 includes two development kits, which provide simple upgrade paths from previous Atheros 802.11g PCI platforms. The first kit includes a 2-layer, half-height mini-PCI design for WLAN gateway applications. The second kit includes a 2-layer, single-sided cardbus for aftermarket wireless PC cards. The AR2417 provides support for Windows XP, 2000 and Vista for cardbus clients and Linux for APs. The solution offers advanced security that supports WPA/WPA2 Personal security, EAP 802.1x authentication and an AES encryption engine. The design also features JumpStart for Wireless compatible with the Wi-Fi Protected Setup standard for simple network configuration. Like all Atheros WLAN solutions, the AR2417 also supports the 802.11e Quality of Service standard.



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