Everything Started with WLAN - Atheros

WLAN for home, office, and metro applications
ATHEROS is the driving force behind continuous innovations and the market leader for WLAN ICs for both stationary and mobile WiFi solutions in its market segments. Linux support for all modules is a matter of course with the extended temperature of range from -40°C to +85°C also being covered. With its SuperG and AG technologies, ATHEROS laid the foundations for the current 11n standard and paved the way for so-called XR (eXtended Range) technology with outstanding receiver sensitivity generating almost double the range of conventional 802.11g solutions.
To perfect 802.11n applications, ATHEROS has also developed its own network processors which support Gigabit Fast Ethernet as well as a whole host of interfaces for the growing number of multimedia, data network and peripheral applications of 802.11n.

ROCm for mobile WLAN
ROCm (Radio-on-a-Chip) WLAN mobile is the culmination of ATHEROS’ WLAN experience and constitutes the first single chip for 802.11g and 802.11a/g. This integration in turn means maximum efficiency in terms of costs, space requirements and power consumption for a new class of WiFi devices in mobile and VoIP telephones, portable media players and even games consoles and digital cameras. A separate pre-certified module in “chip format” with an SDIO interface facilitates cost-efficient designs with minimum external connection work.

ROCm Bluetooth
Based on the company’s technical expertise in HF CMOS design, the next logical step was to create a family of organic Bluetooth solutions. That these solutions provide excellent function and co-exist happily with WLAN is a matter of course in view of ATHEROS’ history. The first design is aimed at the PC OEM market and is also the first 2.1 + EDR Bluetooth technology in a small low cost QFN housing which eliminates the need for external flashes.

ROCm GPS
ATHEROS ROCm for GPS comprises single chip and software solutions for the design of mobile location-based products and services. The core of the products is the highly integrated uN3010 GPS single chip receiver, which combines the powerful CMOS RFIC core with the third generation of baseband ICs on a single die. In addition to conventional autonomous GPS, the relevant Orion v2.2 software also supports assisted GPS. The software has been improved to provide maximum reliability even in difficult environments and features high GPS sensitivity and fast location determination.

Gigabit and Fast Ethernet
Although ATHEROS did not enter the Ethernet market until the end of 2006, its clientele already includes the majority of PC and networking companies. The company recently sold its 100 millionth Ethernet chip. This rapid success is based on ATHEROS’ innovative mixed signal and DSP technology which allows highly integrated, powerful Ethernet solutions that also happen to be some of the most energy-efficient Ethernet technologies available on the market.
Not only does that mean longer battery life cycles but also greener products.

Powerline technology from INTELLON
At the end of 2009 ATHEROS took over INTELLON POWERLINE TECHNOLOGY, thus supplementing its existing wired and wireless network technologies with PLC. This meant embracing the most widespread wire medium, the power system in all buildings and saw the start of efforts to achieve a previously unheard of meshing of robust networks with high band widths for a steadily growing number of networked systems. This also paved the way for new markets, from digital home to smart grid solutions.