First 802.11b interoperability certifications for products based on a dual-band 802.11a/b chipset

“As the first company to ship 802.11a chipsets in volume and the only vendor to ship dual-band 802.11a/b chipsets in volume, Atheros has led the industry in expanding wireless LAN capabilities,” said Rich Redelfs, president and chief executive officer of Atheros. “Wi-Fi certification establishes that our dual-band 802.11a/b client card and access point designs offer interoperable support for the widely deployed 802.11b infrastructure. In addition, users get all the advantages of newer 802.11a wireless networking that delivers up to five times the data rate.”

Wi-Fi certification assures customers that what they are buying will be compatible with other vendors’ Wi-Fi certified products and work with those products right out of the box. Like all products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the Atheros CardBus card and access point reference designs have undergone strict, rigorous and independent testing at Agilent’s Interoperability Certification Labs.  The Wi-Fi Alliance, formerly known as the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), is a nonprofit international association formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of wireless LAN products based on IEEE 802.11 specifications.

The Atheros AR5001X chipset used in the certified station and access point reference designs includes a 5-GHz 802.11a radio-on-a-chip, a 2.4-GHz 802.11b radio-on-a-chip, and a multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor. In addition to providing second-generation 802.11a features, including support for 13 non-overlapping channels, the chipset also provides full hardware acceleration for WEP and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) security with no performance degradation at full line-speed.              

About Atheros Communications, Inc.

Atheros Communications is the leading developer of networking technologies for secure, high-performance wireless local area networks. As the industry innovator and market-share leader in wireless OFDM technology 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 Accton, Actiontec, Acrowave Systems, AirVast Technology, ALPS, Ambit, Askey, ASUS, BenQ, Contec, CyberTAN, Delta Networks, D-Link, Gemtek, Gigabyte Technology, Global Sun Tech, ICOM, Intel, Intermec, I-O Data, Linksys, NEC, NETGEAR, Philips, Proxim, Samsung, Senao, SMC Networks, Sony, Symbol, TDK, TECOM, USI, W2 Networks, Wistron NeWeb, Z-Com and others. For more information, visit www.atheros.com or send email to info@atheros.com.

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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.

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