|
Atheros Ships Its 10-Millionth
Wireless Chip
Growth of WiFi-enabled Notebook PCs, Wireless LAN
Switch Products and Hot Spots Fuels Demand for Advanced Wireless LAN Technology
SUNNYVALE, Calif., October 28, 2003—Atheros Communications, a leading
developer of advanced multimode wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions, today announced
it has shipped its 10-millionth wireless chip. The growth of Atheros shipments
can be attributed to several factors including the market’s demand for higher
performance wireless technologies, the rising market awareness and adoption of
notebook PCs with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, the introduction of LCD and
plasma televisions with integrated 802.11a, and new single-band and multi-band
enterprise and consumer products that enable faster speeds using the 802.11g and
802.11a standards.
Since the company’s first customer
shipment in September 2001, Atheros has introduced new multimode 802.11a/b,
802.11b/g and 802.11a/b/g solutions. Today, seven of the world’s leading PC
vendors are offering notebook PCs with integrated 802.11b/g and/or 802.11a/b/g
WLAN technology from Atheros. In addition 14 of the industry’s top providers of
enterprise and public access class networking equipment are using Atheros
chipsets in their multimode WLAN access points, and major retail providers have
introduced 802.11b/g and/or 802.11a/b/g products using Atheros technology. Most
recently, Atheros introduced two new two-chip solutions comprising the
fourth-generation product line-up, which include advanced features to boost
performance, double the range of today’s Wi-Fi products, and reduce power
consumption by 60 percent.
“By the end of the year, more than
16 million notebooks will have shipped with embedded Wi-Fi capabilities as an
out-of-the-box feature,” said Gemma Paulo, senior analyst, with In-Stat/MDR. The
research firm is predicting that 95 percent of all new notebook PCs will include
Wi-Fi technology by 2005. “With its innovative single-band 802.11g and dual-band
802.11a/b/g solutions, and its long list of PC OEM design wins, Atheros is well
positioned to take advantage of this strong growth.”
The market is quickly
transitioning from legacy 802.11b products with limited data transfer rates of
11Mbps, to 802.11b/g and multi-band 802.11a/b/g products that enable speeds of
54Mbps and up. Atheros’ chipsets offer end users even higher performance using
Super G™
and Super A/G™
performance modes, which offer data rates up to
108Mbps with TCP/IP throughput up to 90Mbps.
“Achieving 10 million chip shipments in such a
short time is very significant and further validates the high demand for
Atheros’ advanced single-band and multi-band WLAN solutions,” said Russ Craig,
research director, semiconductors, with Aberdeen Group. “The company has
continued to innovate in key areas such as delivering strong wireless security,
higher performance with its Super G and Super A/G modes, longer range and
reduced power consumption for longer battery-life.”
The rapid rise in popularity of Wi-Fi technology
and products has also been driven by the increase in public hot spots. Gartner
Dataquest Inc., a technology research and consulting firm in Stamford, Conn.,
predicts more than 167,000 hot spots by 2008 with over 75 million users of
public WLAN hot spots (0.7 probability).
Additionally, the emergence of enterprise wireless
infrastructure products is also increasing demand for WLAN chips. “Certainly,
the infrastructure market will evolve over the next 2-3 years, as end users
demand those solutions that best simplify installation, improve performance, and
enhance and simplify security and management,” said Paulo.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest from our customers
that want to offer the newer 802.11b/g or 802.11a/b/g functionality,” said Craig
Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros. “We believe Atheros
has been able to stay ahead of its competitors by being first to market with
innovative features such as eXtended Range technology and Super G or A/G, which
improve the user experience by offering greater range and throughput. We’re
committed to helping our customers bring to market advanced new wireless
products that cover a wide range of applications such as enterprise and
multimedia.”
Atheros’ chipsets support emerging security
standards such as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and draft 802.11i Advanced
Encryption Standard (AES) without reducing performance. The chipsets also
include Wireless Multimedia Enhancements (WME) and draft 802.11e Quality of
Service enhancements for multimedia and VoIP applications. For more information
about Atheros, please visit
www.atheros.com.
About
Atheros Communications, Inc.
Atheros Communications is a leading developer of networking
technologies for secure, high-performance wireless local area networks. As an
innovator in advanced multi-mode wireless solutions compliant with the IEEE
802.11 specifications, Atheros is driving transparent connections among
electronic devices in the office, home and on the road. Atheros technology is
being used by many of the world's leading wireless equipment manufacturers
including 3Com, Acer, Acrowave Systems, Actiontec, AIRAYA, Airespace, AirVast
Technology, ALPS, Alvarion, Ambit, Arcadyan, Aruba Wireless Networks, Askey,
ASUS, Avaya, BenQ, Chantry Networks, Contec, CyberTAN, Dacom, Delta Networks,
D-Link, Elecom, Fujitsu, Gemtek, Gigabyte Technology, Global Sun Tech, HP, IBM,
Icom, Intel, Intermec, I-O Data, IPone, Lenovo, Linksys, NEC, NETGEAR, Nortel
Networks, Philips, Proxim, RapidWave, Samsung, Senao, Sercom, SMC Networks,
Sony, Symbol Technologies, TDK, TECOM, Toshiba, Trapeze Networks, USI, W2
Networks, Wistron NeWeb, Z-Com and others. For more information, visit
www.atheros.com or send email to
info@atheros.com.
# # #
Atheros, the Atheros logo, Super G, Super A/G are registered trademarks of
Atheros Communications, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this document
are the property of their respective owners.
Cheryl Patstone, 408-773-5344, cheryl@atheros.com
or Greg Wood, A&R Partners, 650-762-2838,
gwood@arpartners.com.
View All Press Releases
|
