Product category:
Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: Atheros Communications | Subject: Atheros ROCm single-chip AR6002 family
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 30 October 2007
IC extends mobile device battery lives
The AR6002 solution will take more than 100 hours to deplete a standard 3.7V, 800mAh phone battery in continual VoIP mode.
Atheros Communications has released the Atheros ROCm single-chip AR6002 family, offering low power for mobile WLAN solutions The AR6002 draws near-zero standby power and has nominal impact on battery life even in active mode, both key considerations in the design of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile products
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 26 Apr 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Atheros AR6002 consumes 70% less power than competitive solutions in active mode while downloading content.
This substantial power reduction results in longer battery life, enabling significantly more downloads and longer talk time between mobile device charges.
For example, the AR6002 solution will take more than 100 hours to deplete a standard 3.7V, 800mAh phone battery in continual VoIP mode.
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In another application using the AR6002, 200Gbyte of data can be downloaded before depleting the same battery.
In addition, the AR6002 significantly extends battery life by drawing virtually zero power in standby, relieving users from having to switch the Wi-Fi function on and off.
As a result of its substantial power advances, Atheros' newest ROCm Wi-Fi family generates near-zero battery impact in power-sensitive mobile devices.
This performance achievement effectively eliminates the power consumption challenge facing mobile designers when determining whether to include Wi-Fi in devices like smartphones, personal media players, digital still cameras, gaming and other portable consumer devices.
"Atheros has broken the power barrier for mobile WLAN", said Sam Endy, Vice President and General Manager of the Mobile Wireless Business Unit for Atheros.
"We have architected our new ROCm WLAN family to eliminate the biggest challenge previously associated with integrating Wi-Fi into mobile devices".
The AR6002 minimises power consumption through a combination of hardware and software power-saving protocols and techniques.
In addition, the AR6002 extends battery-life with its throughput, which reduces the amount of time the WLAN chip must be in active mode.
"I've seen Atheros' new mobile Wi-Fi technology in action and was impressed by its extraordinarily low power consumption", said Will Strauss, President and Principal Analyst of Forward Concepts.
"With its near-zero impact on battery life, the AR6002 should transform Wi-Fi from an optional to a must-have feature across mobile devices".
"The near-zero power utilisation of Atheros' AR6002 is impressive", said Joe Tate, HP Vice President of Operations and Engineering, Handheld Global Business Unit.
"The AR6002 provides a multitude of opportunities to deliver a richer mobile user experience with Wi-Fi".
Atheros' ROCm family features pre-installed WLAN driver support for the Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 operating system.
In addition to implementing industry standard, two, three and four-wire protocols for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth co-existence in mobile devices, Atheros has developed algorithms that adjust the WLAN communication behaviour when in the presence of Bluetooth devices.
The AR6002 family offers full-speed, hardware-based, security with the WPA, WPA2 and 802.11i standards and supports the industry-standard Wi-Fi Protected Set-Up with Atheros JumpStart for Wireless.
The solutions also offer a rich feature set to support voice and video through polled QoS extensions (802.11e and WMM).
The AR6002 provides full driver support for Windows Embedded CE, Windows Mobile and Linux-based solutions.
Atheros' AR6002 single-chip solution is available in single (2.4GHz) and dual-band (2.4/5GHz) options in CSP or BGA packages to satisfy a wide array of application design requirements.
The AR6002 features substantial RBOM integration onto the chip with integrated power amplifier (PA), low noise amplifier (LNA) and RF switch in a total solution footprint of less than 50mm2.
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