All Things Wireless LAN

June 26th, 2006: Boeing considers selling Connexion

2006-06-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

Boeing Considers Sale of Airplane Internet Unit

REVIEW DATE: JUNE 26, 2006

By Reuters

NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters)—Planemaker Boeing Co. said on Monday it was halting expansion of its airborne broadband Internet business and was considering a sale of the slow-growing unit.The unit, called Connexion by Boeing, sells the equipment for airlines and other plane operators to offer passengers high-speed, broadband communications on their airplanes.

Read full article here...

Aug, 2004: Quadrupling Wi-Fi speeds with 802.11n

2006-04-24T01:38:00.000-07:00

by James M. Wilson

The current 802.11a/b/g WLAN standards offer the convenience of wireless connections with adequate performance for most of today's wireless networking applications, However, as next-generation wireless applications emerge, higher WLAN data throughput will be required. In response to this anticipated need, both the IEEE TGn and the Wi-Fi Alliance have set goals for the next generation of WLAN performance.

This whitepaper by a technical marketing engineer in Intel's Communications Technology Lab introduces Intel's vision for an IEEE 802.11n implementation that exceeds the IEEE TGn's expectations, which are roughly quadruple that of 802.11a and g. In addition, 802.11n will support all major platforms, including consumer electronics, personal computing, and handheld platforms, and will be usable throughout all major environments, including enterprise, home, and public hotspots.

Read full article...

10/2005: 2.4 GHz single-chip digital wireless audio streamer

2006-04-24T01:32:00.000-07:00

Nordic Semiconductor launches its nRF24Z1 that combines a QoS subsystem with a 2.4GHz transceiver and digital audio interfaces.

Oslo, Norway— Nordic Semiconductor introduces the nRF24Z1, a complete digital wireless audio streamer solution in a 6x6mm package. The device uses the company's 4Mbit/s MegaZtream platform with an embedded Quality of Service (QoS) subsystem, a low power, robust 4Mbit/s wireless 2.4GHz transceiver, and all appropriate digital audio interfaces.

Read full article...

04/14/2006: Marvell is 'top dog' in 802.11n market

2006-04-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Semiconductor maker Marvell Technology Group Ltd. said that its TopDog line of 802.11n IEEE draft-compliant chips has been selected by D-Link Inc. for its draft 802.11n product offerings.

Marvell’s TopDog claims to be the industry's first compliant 802.11n wireless LAN (WLAN) chip solution. The TopDog product is said to deliver data rates between 300- to 600-Mbps and Ethernet connectivity from 100-Mbps to 1-Gbps.

Read article here...

2003: Intel acquired Mobilian

2006-04-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

Intel has acquired the assets of little-known wireless networking chip maker Mobilian for an undisclosed sum.

Mobilian's web site was recently updated to state: "Substantially all of the assets of Mobilian have been acquired. Mobilian is discontinuing operations as an independent entity."

Read full article...

Also here...

2002: Telematix, where'd it go??

2006-04-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

Telematic Corporation claimed they had a patented protocol processor: PacketGenie. This was licensed by Parthus. Now Parthus and Telematic are not to be seen and heard of anymore. Where the hell did they disappear to?

2002: Parthus Technolologies Announces the Launch of Wireless-LAN Platform Targeting the 802.11 Market

2006-04-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

San Jose, Calif. - April 25, 2002 - Parthus Technologies (Nasdaq: PRTH, LSE: PRH), a leading provider of platform-level intellectual property targeting the mobile Internet, today announced the launch of In8Stream™, an 802.11 multi-mode wireless local area network (WLAN) platform. In8Stream™ targets the entire range of IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards (a, b, g, e, i) through one flexible architecture and is based upon PacketGenie™ technology from Telematix - a leading developer of multi-protocol wireless networking technology.

Read full article...

2006: Which are the 802.11 IP vendors?

2006-04-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

Newlogic
Wipro
Parthus?
Hellosoft
Redpine
Ittia
TTPCom?
Other smaller Japanese companies

2006: New 802.11 IP player on the block

2006-04-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

RiverMarkTech

2000 - 2004: Cisco acquired Radiata for 11a

2006-04-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

SAN JOSE and SYDNEY, Nov. 13, 2000 - Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Radiata, Inc. of San Jose, California and Sydney, Australia. Radiata is a leading supplier of chipsets for high-speed wireless networks. This acquisition strengthens Cisco's New World strategy by expanding its ability to deliver next generation wireless networks using the IEEE 802.11a standard for faster data rates.

Read full article...

At this point Cisco was usng Intersil's chipsets. The company's Prism line of WLAN chip sets are being used by a growing number of OEMs, including 3Com Corp. (stock: COMS), Cisco, Symbol Technologies Inc. (stock: SBL), and others.

In 2004, Cisco retired the Radiata chipsets, since long term production of internal chipsets was not of strategic interest.

Read full article...

Jan 2005: QuickLogic, Renesas collaborate on 802.11 IP phone reference

2006-04-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

Programmable logic developer QuickLogic has inked a development pact with Renesas Technology, under which the companies will develop an IP reference design for 802.11b/g wireless LAN (WLAN) networks.

The reference platform is designed around Renesas' SH7720 32-bit RISC processor and QuickLogic's low-power programmable PCI bridge solution. The SH7720 is part of the SuperH family of 32-bit RISC processors. This processor is equipped with a 133 MHz (173 MIPS) SH3-DSP core, 32 Kbytes of cache memory, a color LCD controller, SSL hardware accelerator, USB 1.1 interface, I2C interface, and PCMCIA interface.

The PCI bridge is implemented on the QuickPCI family of programmable logic devices (PLDs). This device implements the company's μWatt technology to reduce power consumption.

Read full article...

Feb 2003: Ittiam launches its 802.11b WLAN IP

2006-04-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Ittiam Systems, today announced the availability of a complete Wireless LAN (Local Area Network) IP offering based on the IEEE 802.11b standard.

Ittiam 802.11b Wireless LAN offering includes complete model of the system, a Synthesizable Core for the 802.11b PHY, 802.11 MAC software and a complete reference board on which the entire IP is demonstrated in real time. It is designed to work with commercial off-the-shelf RF chipsets.

The 802.11b baseband is available as a synthesizable HDL (Hardware Description Language) core, in both Verilog and VHDL. It has a benchmark gate count, highly competitive PER (Packet Error Rate) performance and includes advanced signal processing algorithms for synchronization, channel estimation and equalization.

The 802.11 MAC is designed for 802.11b/a/g and operates both in Access Point and Station Card mode. The implementation of the MAC is an optimal partition between hardware and software. The aim is to ensure low MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) and easy portability.

Read full article...

2000-2001: TTPCom bought 802.11 from Cadence, which bought from Tality

2006-04-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

TTPCom's 802.11 IP was bought from Cadence. And Cadence in turn had bought it from Tality. Tality had licensed its 802.11 IP in 2000 to LinCom. In 2001, Tality launched its 802.11 MAC solution.

"The solution consists of a synthesizable MAC core and protocol stack, suitable for both embedded and hosted applications. Tality has implemented the core in three platform-based configurations: a dual-mode IEEE 802.11a/b design utilizing two ARM7TDMI processors, a similar design utilizing a single ARM9 processor, and an IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi) design utilizing a single ARM7TDMI.

The MAC solution was developed from ground up to ensure that it can saturate the 54Mb/s medium, a performance that is virtually impossible to achieve starting from a lower-rate design. The core and protocol stack were co-developed as a highly optimized, deeply integrated system. The protocol stack's modular architecture enables rapid modification to conform to evolutions in the IEEE 802.11 specification, such as IEEE802.11g, IEEE 802.11e and IEEE 802.11i.

The solution is designed for maximum data throughput with minimum processor load and chip power consumption. The MAC executes all datapath functions, leaving the host processor(s) to manage and control the protocol at an abstracted level. The integrated power control automatically closes down circuits not in use, and a separate timer enables almost complete system shutdown when in standby mode.

The three ARM-based configurations enable customers to develop chip designs rapidly. The configurations are complete baseband designs with all necessary I/O, memory interfaces and an optional CardBus interface for PC based applications." <link>