Wifi Revolution

Atheros (News - Alert) Communications, Inc. has introduced the Atheros ROCm single-chip AR6002 family, which features low-power for mobile WLAN solutions.

The power efficiency delivered by the AR6002 draws near-zero standby power and has nominal impact on battery life even in active mode. The company pointed out that it consumes 70 percent less power than competitive solutions on the market in active mode while downloading content.

The company added that the substantial power reduction results in longer battery life, enabling significantly more downloads and longer talk time between mobile device charges. 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.

The leading developer of advanced wireless solutions, Atheros, stated that it has intentions to catalyze the adoption of WiFi in handheld and mobile device markets with its low-power designs for mobile and also through its performance in WiFi (News - Alert) throughput and connection reliability.

Atheros executives claim that the AR6002 performance achievement eliminates the power consumption challenge facing mobile designers when determining whether to include WiFi 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 for mobile wireless business unit at Atheros, in a statement. “No other solutions on the market today can touch this new power standard for mobile WiFi. We have architected our new ROCm WLAN family to eliminate the biggest challenge previously associated with integrating WiFi into mobile devices.”

“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 at Forward Concepts.

Strauss believed that with near-zero impact on battery life, the AR6002 should transform WiFi from an optional to a must-have feature across mobile devices. Joe Tate (News - Alert), vice president of operations and engineering for Handheld Global Business Unit at HP, added that the near-zero power utilization of Atheros' AR6002 is impressive.

“The AR6002 provides a multitude of opportunities to deliver a richer mobile user experience with WiFi,” said Tate.

Endy informed that, at present, Atheros' AR6002 second-generation ROCm solutions are sampling and will be in volume production in the first quarter of 2008.

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Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

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