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Atheros XSPAN® Technology
Expanding performance. Expanding possibilities.

Atheros offers the most innovative and complete portfolio of 802.11n wireless LAN chipset solutions. The new AR9001 family of chipsets, the second-generation of Atheros’ XSPAN 802.11n technology, builds upon the company’s first-generation XSPAN products – with enhanced performance, higher integration, smaller form factors and lower overall
cost – to meet the needs of the rapidly growing 802.11n market. Like the first-generation XSPAN products, all AR9001 chipsets are compliant to the latest IEEE 802.11n draft specification. 

Atheros’ AR9001 chipsets feature:

Leading Integration that delivers end product cost and form factors
to drive broad market adoption of 802.11n products;

Single- and Dual-Band, and Multiple MIMO Configurations that
enable OEMs to tailor product price/performance for specific
application and market segment requirements;

Rich Media & Peripheral Interfaces that anticipate the requirements
for advanced media networking applications and allow end-product
feature differentiation;

Simple Setup via Atheros’ JumpStart for Wireless, the company’s
simple network configuration software which supports both the PIN
and push-button setup methods complying to the Wi-Fi Protected
Setup specification;

Worldwide 5 GHz Full-Spectrum Support for state-of-regulatory
requirements with Atheros’ Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS).

Product Overview

Atheros offers the industry’s most comprehensive 802.11n client product portfolio with the addition of the AR9001U series of 802.11n USB chipsets. USB wireless LAN adapters are now the most popular method for adding after-market wireless connectivity to a variety of consumer devices – laptop and desktop PCs, gaming consoles, PVRs/home gateways,
NAS storage devices and printers. Atheros has added additional flexibility to connect in any wireless environment with the industry’s first dual-band USB solution. The AR9001U chipsets and reference designs support single- and dual-band operation with options for 2x2
and 1x2 MIMO radio configurations. Most notable is an extremely small footprint – the industry’s smallest – that enables USB thumb-drive sized products to meet consumer popular demand.

• AR9001U-2NX: 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band, 2x2 MIMO radio
• AR9001U-2NG: 2.4 GHz Single-Band, 2x2 MIMO radio
• AR9001U-NG: 2.4 GHz Single-Band, 1x2 MIMO radio

Solution Highlights

• Next generation, high-performance draft 2.0 compliant 802.11n USB wireless adapter chipset solutions:
  
  AR9001U-2NX
  - AR9170: 802.11n draft 2.0 MAC/Baseband with USB 2.0
  - AR9104: 2x2 MIMO Dual-band 2.4/5 GHz Radio
  AR9001U-2NG
  - AR9170: 802.11n draft 2.0 MAC/Baseband with USB 2.0
  - AR9102: 2x2 MIMO Single-band 2.4 GHz Radio
  AR9001U-NG
  - AR9170: 802.11n draft 2.0 MAC/Baseband with USB 2.0
  - AR9101: 1x2 MIMO Single-band 2.4 GHz Radio
   
• Small footprint enables popular thumb-drive sized wireless adapters
• Enables data rates up to 300 Mbps – nearly six times that of 802.11g
• Supports auto-install operation with optional external flash memory
• Complies with IEEE 802.11a, b, g and draft 2.0 n; 802.11d, e, h, i and j
• OS Support: Windows 2000, XP and Vista, Linux and MAC OSX
• Lead-free RoHS-compliant