Atheros Demonstrates Its Industry-Leading Connectivity Portfolio at CES 2009

Latest WLAN, WPAN, WAN and GPS Technologies Enhance the User Experience with PCs, Home Networking and Mobile Handsets

CES CONFERENCE, LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8, 2009 — Atheros Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), a leading developer of advanced semiconductor system solutions for wireless and wired communications, is demonstrating its industry-leading connectivity portfolio at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in its private booth located at the LVCC, South Hall 4 #35372MP. Atheros’ showcased technologies will demonstrate the company’s commitment to providing customers in the PC, home networking and mobile markets with performance options that enable product differentiation, design features that enhance ease-of-use, and comprehensive solution sets that enable complete platforms.            

Atheros’ industry-leading portfolio of technologies is designed to meet the increasing consumer demand for uncompromised performance, reliability and value in networking and connectivity products. The company, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, is committed to  bringing a new wave of innovations to market to enhance the WLAN, WAN, PAN and navigation experiences, such as those being demonstrated this week at CES.
           
Home Networking and PCs
XSPAN® and Align™ for 802.11n: Atheros is featuring a comprehensive range of performance and value design options, and customer end-products for 802.11n based on its latest PC and networking solutions. The company’s 11n portfolio consists of XSPAN 2-stream, MIMO-based designs, the world’s most widely adopted 802.11n technology, and its new Align 1-stream designs based on the 802.11n specification. The company will also showcase its newest 2Tx/2Rx XSPAN value-class, multimedia networking solutions, as well as its highest-performance dual-radio, dual-concurrent router solution featured in most of the dual-radio routers shown this week at CES.

iQUE™  (Intelligence for a Quality User Experience) Spectral Analysis: Atheros will demonstrate its latest software capability, which enhances the end-user experience by providing real-time assessment of wireless network environments in the home or office. This capability allows the wireless device to avoid channel interference by seeking the clearest networking path. Atheros’ carrier and retail networking customers benefit from iQUE’s ability to remotely diagnose network interference, and thus avoid costly service calls and retail product returns.
 
PCs and Mobile
Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking: Atheros’ WLAN technology will allow client devices such as PCs, handsets, cameras, MP3 players, wireless printers and set-top boxes to connect directly to other clients, without the use of an access point. This technology also provides smartphones with soft AP capability, which supports multiple clients. Atheros direct connect technology will enable a new class of WLAN networking that is simple, fast, and secure, and will become an industry standard within the next year.

Next-Generation Bluetooth®:  Atheros will demonstrate the forthcoming, high-speed Bluetooth technology, which will significantly expand personal networking applications supported by Bluetooth with its Wi-Fi®-enabled speed, capacity, and range.

ROCm® WLAN for Mobile Gaming: Atheros’ AR6002 WLAN solution for mobile continues to lead the industry with the strongest overall performance, by delivering infrastructure-class throughput, reliable coverage, and the industry’s lowest power consumption. The company will rock mobile gaming with Nintendo’s ROCm-enabled Nintendo DSi.

ROCm Precision GPS: Atheros will demonstrate unmatched navigational accuracy with its latest AGPS solution, which employs the company’s patent-pending advanced parallel search to deliver rapid fix times, even in the most challenging environments.

“Atheros’ connectivity technologies are enabling our customers to produce a new wave of differentiated products that deliver industry-leading performance, advanced features and value to the consumer,” said Reynette Au, vice president of marketing and alliances, for Atheros. “Together, we are developing market-wise products that will provide the best possible connectivity experiences in the PC, home networking and mobile markets.”

For more details, or to schedule a meeting to see any of the company’s product demonstrations, please visit Atheros’ CES booth located in the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 4 #35372MP.

About Atheros Communications, Inc.
Atheros Communications is a leading developer of semiconductor system solutions for wireless and wired 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 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, ETHOS and XSPAN 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 the features, benefits and performance of Atheros’ ETHOS products, the anticipated growth of demand for GbE networking, and the expected success of Atheros in the Ethernet market, 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 the development of new and enhanced products, general economic conditions, the effects of competition and technological change, and the risks detailed in Atheros' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, 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.

For press inquires contact:: Dakota Lee,  408-720-5597, dakota@atheros.com, or Greg Wood, A&R Edelman for Atheros , 650-762-2838, gwood@ar-edelman.com

For analyst inquires contact: David Allen, 408-830-5762, david.allen@atheros.com.