WLAN chipset is faster and more frugal

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team May 20, 2003

Intersil's second-generation Prism GT WLAN 802.11g compliant chipset is now shipping to leading customers and OEMs.

Intersil's second-generation Prism GT WLAN 802.11g compliant chipset is now shipping to leading customers and OEMs.

Designed to support the latest revision 8.1 of the 802.11g draft standard for high-speed datarates to 54Mbit/s in the 2.4GHz band, the new Prism GT solution incorporates major innovations including Prism Nitro technology and Intersil's SingleSource driver suite.

Prism Nitro provides up to a 3x improvement in performance for 802.11g clients operating in mixed-mode wireless networks (ie mixed 802.11b and 802.11g operation) and up to 50% greater throughput performance in 802.11g only networks.

Improved integration and a reduction in total bill of materials also results in a lower cost solution for wireless LAN users.

According to Intersil, the Prism GT chip set achieves the lowest standby current, receive current, and average idle current of any 802.11g chipset solution on the market today resulting in extended battery life.

Testing of standard 802.11g products available in retail today shows that Prism GTs Power Save Mode achieves both the lowest average idle and active currents beating competition by up to 75%.

Prism GTs receive mode current was also up to 35% lower than competitive solutions.

Both of these factors enable Prism GT to consume much lower power than competitive solutions over a wide range of user activity.

"Prism GT enables new generation of high-datarate platforms for operation in the 2.4GHz spectrum that deliver a five-fold increase in throughput over currently marketed 802.11b products", said Larry Ciaccia, Vice President and General Manager for Intersil's Wireless Networking Products Group.

"With the addition of our new power management, Prism Nitro technology and our WPA security, Prism GT is an ideal solution for high-bandwidth enterprise applications, such as wireless video conferencing and large file transfers, as well as advanced home networking applications including multi-channel CD-quality audio and DVD-quality video streaming".

Prism Nitro technology is fully IEEE 802.11g (draft standard 8.1) compliant and uses packet bursting and enhanced protection mechanisms to significantly increase Prism GTs pure 802.11g and mixed-mode (802.11b and 802.11g) performance.

Prism GT enables WLAN uses to move to higher datarates while remaining fully standards compliant.

Prism Nitro technology also ensures full backwards compatibility and interoperability with other standards-compliant brands.

"Our new GT chipset takes WLAN to the next level by providing a new generation radio which enables world class power, performance, software, security and cost", added Ciaccia.

"We have already gone through all the certifications and are in full production with a high volume foundry.

Our Singlesourcedriver suite has enabled a seamless software transition for our OEM partners".

"Intersil is executing on a comprehensive roadmap which entails multiple generations of solutions allowing us, as well as our partners, to maintain leadership in this fast moving market".