Atheros Expands 802.11n Portfolio with Second-Generation XSPAN Solutions

AR9001 Family Supports Market Transition from Legacy Wi-Fi to 802.11n with Enhanced Performance, Integration, Form Factors and Cost

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 21, 2007 — Atheros Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), a leading developer of advanced wireless solutions, today launched its second generation XSPAN® draft 802.11n product line. The new AR9001 family of chipset solutions builds upon the company’s first generation XSPAN products – with enhanced performance, higher integration, smaller form factors and lower overall cost – to meet the needs of the growing 802.11n market. Like Atheros’ previous generation XSPAN products, the AR9001 family is compliant to the latest IEEE 802.11n draft specification. Last week Atheros’ XSPAN technology achieved industry validation through its selection into the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 testing program. Atheros will demonstrate its new XSPAN designs at COMPUTEX in Taipei, Taiwan, June 5-9, 2007, in its Technology Suite (#2448) at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. 

With the growing maturity of the 802.11n specification and start of the WFA performance and interoperability testing program, the 802.11n market is poised to expand during the second half of 2007. Atheros’ first-generation XSPAN solutions have enjoyed much success in products ranging from award-winning routers to the industry’s first dual-band 802.11n laptops. The first members of the new AR9001 family build on this success by targeting the second wave of broader 802.11n adoption in the mainstream consumer market and the first wave of deployments in the high-performance SMB and Enterprise markets. To support these market transitions from legacy Wi-Fi to 802.11n, all Atheros AR9001 solutions feature:

• Leading Integration delivers costs and form factors to help drive broad market adoption of 802.11n products;

• Single- and Dual-Band, and Multiple MIMO Configurations enable OEMs to tailor product price/performance for specific application and market segment requirements;

• Rich Media & Peripheral Interfaces anticipate the requirements for advanced media networking applications and allow end-product feature differentiation;

• Simple Setup via Atheros’ JumpStart for Wireless™, the company’s simple network configuration software, which supports both the PIN and push-button setup methods complying to the industry-standard Wi-Fi Protected Setup protocol;

• Worldwide 5GHz Full-Spectrum Support for state-of-regulatory requirements with Atheros’ Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS).

“The new AR9001 XSPAN family has been engineered to offer our customers a tremendous range of price, performance and form factors enabling them to capture the growing 11n market demand,” said Todd Antes, vice president of marketing for Atheros.

The Growing 11n Mainstream Consumer Networking Market

802.11n end-products are now poised for broader adoption by consumers who want the higher-performance and future-proofing benefits of 802.11n for home and small office networks.   With its second-generation XSPAN product line, Atheros is helping its customers deliver advanced 802.11n products at attractive mainstream prices.

Introducing the Industry’s First 802.11n AP/Router System-on-Chip (SoC)

Atheros’ new AP/Router SoCs deliver the industry’s highest level of integration to enable the most cost-effective 802.11n consumer networking products. The SoCs integrate Atheros’ 802.11n MAC/baseband and 400MHz Wireless Network Processor (WNPU) into a single chip. Two versions of the SoC target the most popular consumer router configurations: the AR9130 with 2x2 MIMO and Fast Ethernet support and the AR9132 with 3x3 MIMO and Gigabit Ethernet support. The SoCs are paired with a newly enhanced AR910x single-chip radio transceiver, featuring single- (2.4 GHz) and dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) options, to form a series of AR9001AP chipsets. Four chipset configurations satisfy a wide array of price and application design requirements:

• AR9001AP-2NG: 11n single-band with 2x2 MIMO, Fast Ethernet

• AR9001AP-2NX: 11n dual-band configurable with 2x2 MIMO, Fast Ethernet

• AR9001AP-3NG: 11n single-band with 3x3 MIMO, Gigabit Ethernet

• AR9001AP-3NX: 11n dual-band configurable with 3x3 MIMO, Gigabit Ethernet

To achieve additional savings, Atheros has designed its recently introduced AR8216 Fast Ethernet switch into associated AR9001AP/Router reference designs to provide its customers with Atheros’ first single-source, complete RJ45-to-air system solution.

Introducing the World’s First and Smallest Dual-Band 802.11n USB

To complete the company’s consumer wireless adapter portfolio, which today includes solutions for PCI, Cardbus and ExpressCard interfaces, Atheros launches the world’s first dual-band capable 802.11n USB chipset. USB adapters are now the WLAN industry’s most popular form factor for adding after-market wireless connectivity to a variety of consumer devices – laptop and desktop PCs, gaming consoles and PVRs/home gateways. Atheros’ focus on integration and efficient system design has achieved the industry’s smallest 802.11n USB footprint, enabling manufacturers to deliver highly compact, thumb-size USB adapters. Atheros’ 802.11n USB series offers flexibility with both single- and dual-band options. The USB family also features the company’s first 1x2 MIMO configuration to enable further cost- and power-efficiencies to drive broad market accessibility. The USB family consists of entry-level and high-performance USB designs:

• AR9001U-2NX: 11n dual-band with 2x2 MIMO

• AR9001U-2NG: 11n single-band with 2x2 MIMO

• AR9001U-NG: 11n single-band with 1x2 MIMO

“With the arrival of the IEEE 2.0 11n draft and the coming Wi-Fi Alliance certification, which ensures performance and interoperability among vendor products, the industry has removed the last important barriers to broad consumer adoption of 11n,” said Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group. “But, in order for 11n products to achieve real volume, price points have to be within reach of the average consumer. I expect Atheros’ extensive portfolio of draft 2.0 products to satisfy this need.”

High-Performance Networking in the SMB and Enterprise Markets

The 802.11n specification was expressly engineered to support more advanced networking, especially latency-sensitive, high-bandwidth/capacity applications. With the 802.11n specification achieving a greater level of stability required for businesses, it is expected that the next wave of demand for high performance 802.11n will come from the SMB and Enterprise markets.

Introducing the Industry’s Highest Performance, Dual-Concurrent 802.11n AP/Router Design

Atheros launches the industry’s highest performance, dual-concurrent 802.11n AP/router design supporting simultaneous use of both WLAN frequency bands to deliver up to 600Mbps aggregate physical data rate. The AR9001AP-3NX2 builds on the company’s successful first-generation 802.11n dual-concurrent design featured in the new WFA Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 testing program. The new chipset incorporates the AR7161, Atheros’ 600MHz WNPU and two second-generation 802.11n radios consisting of a new AR9160 BB/MAC and AR910x series single-chip radio transceiver. The second generation AR9160 BB/MAC provides improved throughput performance at range, power savings and enhanced DFS capabilities to support the full spectrum of 5GHz channels. A 3x3 MIMO radio configuration, leveraging the company’s XSPAN with Signal-Sustain Technology™, increases throughput at range over conventional 2x2 MIMO designs. The AR9001AP-3NX2 AP/Router reference design also features the company’s AR8021 Gigabit Ethernet PHY to provide high-throughput WAN connectivity. This solution sets a new 802.11n performance benchmark with up to 200Mbps of TCP throughput per radio.

Product Availability

These Atheros AR9001 second-generation 802.11n solutions are sampling to customers this quarter and will be in full volume production in the third quarter.

About Atheros Communications, Inc.

Atheros Communications is a leading developer of semiconductor system solutions for wireless and other network communications products. Atheros combines its wireless and networking systems expertise with high-performance radio frequency (RF), mixed signal and digital semiconductor design skills to provide highly integrated chipsets that are manufactured on low-cost, standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes. Atheros technology is being used by a broad base of leading customers, including personal computer, networking equipment and consumer device manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.atheros.com or send email to info@atheros.com

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Atheros, the Atheros logo, XSPAN, Signal-Sustain Technology and JumpStart for Wireless are trademarks of Atheros Communications, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.

NOTE ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements regarding the features, performance, competitiveness and benefits of the Atheros AR9001 family of second-generation 802.11n solutions, the expected production of these products in the third quarter of 2007; the anticipated expansion of the 802.11n market in the second half of 2007 and the expected market transitions from legacy Wi-Fi to 802.11n in the consumer market and the SMB and Enterprise markets; and the anticipated certification of the 802.11n draft specification by the WFA; are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, difficulties in development and manufacture of new products and upgraded products; unforeseen problems in the performance of new and enhanced products upon broad deployment; general economic conditions, the effects of competition and technological change, whether the 802.11n draft specification is certified by the WFA; whether the consumer, SMB and Enterprise markets broadly adopt 802.11n solutions, and other risks detailed in Atheros' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in other reports filed with the SEC by Atheros from time to time. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Atheros disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.