[June 27, 2001]

Virata's 802.11b Reference Design Enables Wireless Home Networking, Remote Internet Access

Virata Corporation announced the release of its 802.11b reference design for manufacturers of wireless devices, such as wireless access points, and wireless-to-Ethernet or wireless-to-broadband routers. With the new Virata 802.11b RD6500 reference design, developers can get up and running quickly to create products that support wireless networking activity in the home or office. 802.11b-based products eliminate the need for rewiring or having unsightly cables and wires around living or work spaces to create a "wire-free" environment.

"Wireless innovation is on the rise and our new reference design will help our customers be first to market with new devices that seamlessly support wireless communication in the home or office, while simultaneously accommodating wired networks," said Duncan Greatwood, vice president of marketing at Virata. "Virata is committed to providing its customers with a range of powerful networking solutions that enable the development of flexible and scalable broadband products. As a leader in the broadband gateway semiconductor and software market, we are uniquely positioned to help accelerate the use of wireless networking in the home. We intend to capture as much market share in the wireless networking space as we have within the DSL arena."

The new RD6500 reference design consists of a PRISM-based 802.11b module and drivers from Intersil Corporation, and Virata's unique ISOS (integrated software on silicon) platform. Customers selecting this reference design will benefit from having the drivers pre-integrated into ISOS 8.0, which is expected to save them considerable time and money in the development process. In addition, customers will no longer need to pay separate licensing fees for the drivers, nor do they need to spend time incorporating all the necessary protocols into their product. When the RD6500 is combined with Virata's BD6200 board, all the core hardware and software required to develop 802.11b-based products will be available in one complete package. In addition, the reference design can be used to help developers build a PCMCIA slot onto a gateway, thereby enabling a user to easily upgrade to 802.11b wireless functionality. Available now, the RD6500 reference design supports infrastructure mode, power management queuing, DHCP and wired equivalency privacy (WEP) security features.

"Intersil's PRISM technology provides the most powerful wireless networking solutions available for manufacturing IEEE 802.11b wireless products," said John Fakatselis, senior manager for Strategic Alliances of Intersil's PRISM Wireless Products business. "When integrated with Virata's powerful 802.11b reference design, the PRISM solutions deliver the affordability, performance and quality that enables our mutual customers to quickly develop and bring Wi-Fi certifiable products to market."

Actiontec Electronics, Inc., a manufacturer of broadband products, has chosen Virata's RD6500 for use in the development of their newest wireless access point product. "We selected Virata's RD6500 reference design because it provided us with the high level of functionality we needed to cost-effectively build our 802.11b wireless product and get it to market quickly," said Chuang Li, vice president of engineering at Actiontec. "No other company could offer us the same breadth of technology and engineering support."

According to Cahners In-stat, revenue in the wireless LAN market is expected to reach nearly $4.6 billion by 2005, which underscores the tremendous opportunity that exists for broadband vendors. "Virata has made an important step by licensing Intersil's PRISM II chipset and combining it with its ISOS platform to create a reference design for wireless device manufacturers," said Mike Lowe, director of Enterprise and Residential Communications at Cahners In-Stat. "By doing so, they are helping to accelerate the widespread adoption of IEEE 802.11b wireless local area networks and drive the evolution of wireless home networking."

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