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
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
600MHz 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.
