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Atheros
ROCm Technology Provides Wi-Fi Connectivity in Z-Com’s
Wireless VoIP Phones
World’s Only
Single-Chip VoIP Solution Brings Voice-over-Wi-Fi to a
New Class of Handsets
SANTA
CLARA, Calif., Feb. 6, 2008 — Atheros
Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), a leading developer
of advanced wireless and wired solutions, today
announced that its AR6101G ROCm® (Radio-on-a-Chip)
mobile WLAN solution was selected for the new Z-Com
WP-520 Honey Pair single-mode Internet Protocol (IP)
phone. Sold in pairs, the new phones enable users to
make free or low-cost calls using any available wireless
local area network (WLAN). Atheros’ AR6101G, the world’s
only single-chip VoIP solution, allows Z-Com to offer
telecom providers and retailers a highly integrated,
ultra low-power design to bring voice-over-Wi-Fi to the
mainstream market. Z-Com is a leading Taiwanese-based
manufacturer of wireless networking equipment for
service providers and home retail products. The Honey
Pair phones target business and residential consumers in
Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin
America, where new IP services are emerging.
With the Atheros AR6101G, the
WP-520 handsets can easily connect to WLANs to make
high-quality, wireless Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) calls for a truly mobile IP experience. The
scalable AR6101G supports rich features like the
effortless connection of two Z-Com phones with the press
of a button, enabling users to quickly connect with
friends and family. In addition, the handset supports
instant messaging capabilities using Google Talk™ which
brings fun features to users wanting to communicate in
real time.
The WP-520 phones are expressly
designed to provide consumers with an extremely
cost-effective VoIP handset solution. Z-Com chose
Atheros’ AR6101G for its reliability, industry-leading
WLAN performance and highly integrated design which
combines multiple complex functions onto a single chip,
including computing, DSP, memory, power management,
keypad, and audio and display interfaces. With this high
level of systems integration, the AR6101G total
component count is reduced by nearly 50 percent versus
competitive designs, and dramatically lowers the total
bill-of-materials. In addition, the AR6101G delivers
lower power consumption than competitive solutions
through proprietary power-save modes and techniques like
UAPSD (Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery) to
provide Z-Com WP-520 handset users with up to five days
of stand-by power, or five hours of continuous talk time
between charges.
“Atheros’ low-power,
high-throughput VoIP solutions enable us to deliver the
most cost-effective, feature-rich VoIP handsets
providing consumers with the best combination of
high-quality voice and uninterrupted connectivity,” said
John Shieh, chief executive officer of Z-Com. “Z-Com’s
WP-520 handsets are ideal for service providers wanting
to offer a low-cost VoIP phone alternative to
subscribers, and are also sold through retailers around
the world as an inexpensive IP phone.”
“The demand for low-cost voice
connectivity among residential and business users
worldwide is growing and generally not addressed by
current solutions on the market,” said Joseph Bousaba,
director of marketing of the Mobile and Embedded
Products unit for Atheros. “We are pleased that Atheros’
cost-effective, high-performance VoIP solution is
helping Z-Com to satisfy the market requirement for an
affordable, high-quality voice experience with the new
WP-520 handsets.”
The Atheros AR6101 platform
implemented in the Z-Com phones integrates a low-power
RISC (MIPS) CPU core, full 802.11b/g functionality and
all of the major handset functions. The solution is
supported by a complete suite of handset software
applications and application development environment. In
addition, the chip provides support for advanced
features including Quality of Service (802.11e) and
industry standard, Wi-Fi Multimedia™ (WMM®), and Wi-Fi
Protected Setup™ via Atheros’ JumpStart for Wireless™,
the company’s industry standardized simple network
configuration software.
All members of the ROCm family
offer full-speed, hardware-based security which is
compliant with the WPA™, WPA2™ and 802.11i standards.
The solution also comes with full driver support for
Windows® Mobile CE 6.0 and Linux®-based designs.
For more information about Atheros’
AR6101G see
atheros.com/pt/wlan_mobile.htm. For more information
about the Z-Com WP-520 please visit
www.zcom.com.tw or
send an email to
info@zcom.com.tw.
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
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.
###
Atheros, the Atheros
logo, ROCm 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 the features,
benefits and performance of Atheros’ AR6101G product,
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, the risks
detailed in Atheros' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2006 and its Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, 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.
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: Deborah Stapleton of Stapleton Communications, Inc.,
+1-650-470-0200,
deb@stapleton.com |