Chip enables 802.11g wireless home gateways.

A highly integrated system on a chip for home gateways reduces the cost of wireless home networking.

Atheros Communications' AR2417 chip is a highly integrated cost-effective enabling product for 802.11g wireless home gateways.

With the AR2417, Atheros has enhanced its most popular selling product ever, the AR5005G, through significantly increased integration.

This reduces the bill of materials for mini-PCI and Cardbus designs by 30-45% compared with competitors' products.

Today, home-gateway systems based on 802.11g technology provide ample performance for basic data networking and web surfing, but the significantly greater throughput enabled by 802.11n networks is required to deliver triple-play services - data, video and voice - throughout the home.

From a volume perspective, IDC projects that 802.11g will account for more than 60% of total WLAN units through 2008.

Atheros expects the AR2417, a simple, low-cost Wi-Fi add-on to existing DSL and xDSL gateway products, to advance the adoption of its low-cost WLAN in home deployments.

The new AR2417 integrates the media access controller, baseband processor and 2.4GHz radio on to the single-chip design.

In addition, the AR2417 integrates the low noise amplifier (LNA) and power amplifier (PA) on to the chip.

The AR2417 offers the added benefit of its innovative two-layer mini-PCI design, the industry's smallest form factor at half the height of existing solutions.

The compact size reduces the printed circuit board (PCB) cost by 50% and component count by more than 40% over the previous generation's four-layer design.

As a result of these enhancements, Atheros enables easy, low-cost implementation of Wi-Fi technology in existing DSL and xDSL residential gateway designs.

"More than half of all Wi-Fi products shipped worldwide are based on 802.11g, and we expect this trend to continue for the next few years", says Michael Stauffer, director of marketing for the carrier business with Atheros.

"With the AR2417, we are delivering the ideal, turnkey 802.11g solution to our DSL customers to provide the easiest route to low-cost Wi-Fi in home gateways".

The AR2417 includes two development kits, which provide simple upgrade paths from previous Atheros 802.11g PCI platforms.

The first kit includes a two-layer, half-height mini-PCI design for WLAN gateway applications.

The second kit includes a two-layer, single-sided Cardbus for aftermarket wireless PC cards.

The AR2417 offers advanced security that supports WPA/WPA2 personal security, EAP 802.1x authentication and an AES encryption engine.

The design also includes JumpStart for Wireless compatible with the Wi-Fi Protected Setup standard for simple network configuration.

Like all Atheros WLAN solutions, the AR2417 also supports the 802.11e quality of service standard.

The AR2417 chip is currently in volume production and shipping to leading retail and carrier customers.

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