Atheros WLAN Technology is Used in Roadside High-Speed WLAN Demo at the 11^th World ITS Congress in Nagoya, Japan

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 20, 2004 – Atheros Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), a leading developer of advanced wireless LAN (WLAN) chipsets, today announced that Atheros' WLAN technology with high-throughput Super AG® capability will be used for a Mobilecast demonstration in a technical tour of a roadside high-speed WLAN system at the 11th World Congress on ITS Nagoya, Aichi 2004, Japan. The event will be held from Oct. 18-22, 2004, mainly at Port Messe Nagoya (Nagoya International Exhibition Hall). The TT-8 technical tour will be hosted by the Internet ITS Consortium from Oct. 19-21, 2004.

During the demonstration, a bus and three demo cars will be driven around a wireless HOTAREA™ that offers continuous connectivity of broadband wireless access services. For Mobilecast’s technology demonstration, access points have been deployed on vending machines in Nagoya city. Five of these access points, including two from Nestle Beverage K.K., will be used to demonstrate high-speed WLAN communications. Atheros’ chipset is used in Mobilecast’s embedded vehicular router, the Mobilecast Automotive Gateway (MAG™), which provides broadband connectivity to the vehicles.

Mobilecast has been offering wide area telematics service with CDMA 1x, and is now first to demonstrate at the ITS Congress a wireless broadband solution that enables more high-volume data communications, such as movie streaming, than CDMA 1x can currently offer.

Atheros has been cooperating with Mobilecast since March 2004 to develop a roadside high-speed WLAN system. Mobilecast currently is partnering with the South Otsu Street shopping avenue in Nagoya, to make the street a HOTAREA. Visitors can receive streaming advertisements or download local information via the wide area telematics service. 

 “Atheros views telematics as one of the important future applications for WLAN and has put a lot of effort into developing the industry. We contributed, for example, in field testing to develop the specification for the WLAN standard for telematics, called IEEE802.11a RA,” said Tomoki Ohsawa, General Manager of Atheros Communications, K.K. “The ITS World Congress demonstration means a lot to Atheros since many people will be able to actually experience the technology. Atheros continues to contribute to expanding the telematics market in Japan.”

For more information on the 11^th World Congress and TT-8 technical tour, please see:

http://www.itswc2004.jp/index.html, and http://www.itsworldcongress.org/technical/online.html.

About ITS

The World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems is the premier international event where transportation professionals from around the globe gather to share knowledge, exchange ideas and explore state-of-the-art technologies and innovations in the high-tech transportation industry. Since the first World Congress in Paris, France in 1994, the continuing goal is to promote awareness and deployment of ITS technologies and enhance our ability to work together to lift the world’s transportation systems to new levels of safety, reliability, convenience and accessibility.

About Internet ITS Consortium (IIC)

Internet ITS is an application system with universal specifications enabling any car to connect to the Internet anytime and anywhere. IIC has been working to develop the platform; support the development of new businesses that improve safety, environment, comfort and convenience; and contribute to standardization of the global Internet ITS base. The following IIC member companies are participating in the demo: Aishin Seiki Co.,Ltd; Nippon Oil Corp./NEC Corp./ Tatsuno Corp.; Tsubasa System Co., Ltd.; Cybird Co., Ltd.; Mobilecast Inc.; Zenrin DataCom Co., Ltd./KDDI Corp.; Denso Corp.; Itochu Corp./NTT Communications Corp. (in order of demonstration).

About Super AG® Technology

In Japan, Atheros Super AG® technology implements a combination of innovative performance-enhancement features – packet bursting, fast frames, and data compression – that improve the throughput and range of wireless networking products. The technology supports up to 54 megabits-per-second (Mbps) data link rates for users in Japan, and typical end-user throughput of up to 40 Mbps. This is approximately double the throughput performance of standard 802.11g or 802.11a/g products. Outside Japan, where an additional dynamic turbo mode can be activated, the technology can deliver more than 60 Mbps of real user-available throughput. This is the highest throughput performance available on the market today. 

About Mobilecast

Established in 2002, Mobilecast built a position in the telematics industry by developing packet communications and WLNA embedded vehicular routers. As the telematics communication service provider for operators and after market, Mobilecast develops its business in and outside of Japan and offers hardware and services to support secure, reliable and comfortable driving. For more information, visit www.mobilecast.co.jp.

About Atheros Communications, Inc.

Atheros Communications is a leading developer of semiconductor system solutions for wireless communications products. Atheros combines its wireless systems expertise with high-performance radio frequency (RF), mixed signal and digital semiconductor design skills to provide highly integrated chipsets that are manufacturable 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 and networking equipment manufacturers. For more information, visit www.atheros.com or send email to info@atheros.com.

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Atheros, the Atheros logo and Super AG® are trademarks of Atheros Communications, Inc. MAG and HOTAREA are trademarks of Mobilecast Telematics. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements regarding the telematics market; and the features, performance and benefits of Atheros’ products in telematics applications, 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, whether and how rapidly consumers adopt telematics applications for Wi-Fi Internet access technologies; our ability to develop products for telematics applications; the effects of competition; difficulties in research and development of new and improved products; and other risks detailed in Atheros’ Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2004 as filed with the SEC 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 and analyst inquiries contact: Cheryl Patstone, 408-773-5344, cheryl@atheros.com or Greg Wood, A&R Partners, 650-762-2838, gwood@arpartners.com.