Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Atheros Communications | Subject: AR8216
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 01 May 2007
Six-port switch provides wired link
The first Ethernet switch product from Atheros Communications is billed as the industry's lowest-cost six-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch.
The first Ethernet switch product from Atheros Communications is billed as the industry's lowest-cost six-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch The AR8216 supports a wide array of wired and wireless networking applications and also targets mainstream 802.11n and 802.11g wireless router and gateway platforms
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 26 Apr 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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With the launch of its own high-performance, low-cost Fast Ethernet switch solution, Atheros now provides networking customers with all of the major silicon required for complete wire-to-wireless router solutions.
These single-source, end-to-end networking designs feature Atheros' market-leading wireless LAN (WLAN), the industry's only network processors designed expressly for Wi-Fi and the company's new Fast Ethernet switch.
Ethernet technology - the proven wired backbone for home and office networks - has the largest installed base for delivering multimedia throughout the home and for connecting wireless access points and PCs.
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Fast Ethernet switches dominate the Ethernet segment, particularly in the mid- to low-tier networking markets.
Whereas adoption of Gigabit Ethernet will expand in high-end 802.11n-based solutions requiring the highest bandwidths for multimedia applications, Fast Ethernet readily serves mainstream networking applications in cost-sensitive 802.11n and 802.11g products.
According to Seamus Crehan, Senior Director of Ethernet Switch Research at Dell'Oro Group: "While we expect to see very strong growth in Gigabit Ethernet over the next few years, Fast Ethernet is still the majority segment in the market with nearly 165 million ports shipped in 2006".
In the near-term, mid-to-low tier networking products for 802.11n and 802.11g are expected to account for the greatest unit volume in the WLAN retail and gateway markets.
Mid-priced 802.11n products will drive adoption of the newest WLAN technology, while demand for legacy 802.11g - given its competitive pricing and broad market penetration - will continue to serve the low-end Wi-Fi market.
"The AR8216 delivers on Atheros' commitment to provide complete, low-cost, high-performance wireless router and gateway solutions to ensure rapid acceptance of the new 802.11n technology", said Tony Hsu, Director of Product Marketing for Atheros.
"In addition to the AR8216, we will offer a complete portfolio of Ethernet switching solutions to satisfy not only this immediate, price-sensitive market, but also support the highest-performance 802.11n products requiring Gigabit Ethernet throughput".
The AR8216 provides the industry's most cost-effective and power-efficient Fast Ethernet connectivity for SOHO and SMB, wired and wireless networks.
The AR8216 offers design flexibility with its six-port configuration consisting of five 10/100 Ethernet PHY ports, one MII port for CPU connectivity and six independent Media Access Controllers (MACs).
The AR8216 offers the industry's smallest footprint through a significantly reduced number of system components in a 10 x 10mm 80-pin low-profile quad flat package.
As a result, the AR8216 is only one-third the sise of competing solutions and delivers the industry's lowest RBOM, maximum design flexibility and increased cost savings.
To provide nonblocking switching performance in all traffic environments, the AR8216 supports an advanced QoS architecture.
This unique Atheros-designed architecture prioritises switch traffic for different classes of applications, such as voice traffic for IP phones, video traffic for multimedia and data traffic for e-mail.
Meeting today's stringent service provider requirements, the AR8216 supports ingress policing and egress rate limiting, as well as IPv4 IGMP and IPv6 MLD snooping to significantly improve the performance of streaming media and other bandwidth- intensive IP multicast applications.
In addition, virtual LANs are supported for separation of different users or groups on the network.
The AR8216 is currently sampling to key customers.
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