AR7100 Product Overview
The AR7100 is Atheros' family of high performance, cost effective and
scalable wireless network processors that enable efficient design of
solutions that address triple play services like voice, video and data.
When combined with the Atheros IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and draft
802.11n wireless chipsets, the AR7100 provides customers with best in
class WLAN solutions for home and enterprise access points, routers and
gateway applications.
The Atheros AR7100 wireless network processors offer a rich array of
interfaces to support next-generation multimedia applications, such as
dual USB 2.0 ports for wireless network storage and printing, a PCM
interface for analog and VoIP telephony, and an I2S interface for audio
streaming through the router. In addition, the AR7100 supports the PCI
2.3 interface to connect to WLAN modules, dual 10/100/1000 ethernet
interfaces to support LAN and WAN connectivity up to gigabit rates with
a DDR controller to support large bandwidth applications.
AR7100 Product Family Highlights
- Wireless LAN processors for home and enterprise access points,
routers and gateways
- 32 bit MIPS 24K processor core
- Two 10/100/1000 ethernet MACs
- High speed UART and GPIOs
- DDR and serial FLASH memory interface
- 32 bit, 33/66 MHz PCI 2.3 host interface
- Two integrated USB 2.0 MAC/PHYs
- PCM interface for glueless SLIC support
-
I²S interface to directly support an external audio codec
- Available in commercial and industrial temperature grades
- Lead-free RoHS compliant option
AR7100 Applications
The AR7100 is optimized for WLAN applications. It offers a high
performance solution that can be designed at cost points required for
mass market adoption. Some of the common applications that can be
designed using the AR7100 are:
High Performance 802.11a/b/g and 802.11b/g Access Points and
Routers
802.11a/b/g access points and routers require extra processing power to
support both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrums. The AR7100 provides
extra processing power to enable the design of high performance
products. The AR7141, a 400 MHz processor, allows the design of access
points and routers with gigabit ethernet WAN and LAN interfaces.
For 802.11b/g access points and routers the AR7130, which is a 300MHz
processor, provides the required processing power while enabling the
products to meet cost points for mass market adoption.
Draft 802.11n Access Points and Routers
Draft 802.11n is the next generation of high-speed wireless LAN
technology. With draft 802.11n chipsets that have the capability of
reaching over 300 Mbps, it is essential that the wireless LAN processor
employed in draft 802.11n access points and routers assure full
performance. The AR7100 family through its 300MHz, 400MHz and 680MHz
solutions allows draft 802.11n products to realize their full potential.
In addition, interfaces such as dual USB, I2S and SLIC allow customers
to design solutions supporting printing, audio and VoIP applications.
Dual-Band Access Points and Routers
Dual-band access points and routers have multiple uses in the home and
enterprise. The dual concurrent architecture allows customers to design
solutions for high definition video streaming via the 5GHz radio
while enabling users to continue using e-mail, VoIP functionality
etc...via the 2.4 GHz radio. The Atheros AR7161 provides a
dual-concurrent AP/Router solution which provides up to 2x the
throughput when compared to single-band (2.4GHz only) AP/Routers. Thus
the AR7161 wireless network processor enables robust solutions for the
enterprise and retail segments.
