Atheros brings Wi-Fi, Bluetooth solutions

SAN JOSE, USA: Chip-maker Atheros Communications Inc., on whom Qualcomm has set its eyes on, announced two new wireless solutions, AR9485 and AR9004WB-1NG, that bring Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to notebooks, netbooks, desktops and tablets.

The new AR9485 extends Atheros' family of Align 1-stream 802.11n solutions and is touted to be the "greenest" WLAN solution in the market offering the industry's lowest power consumption, 30 to 50 percent lower than comparable solutions, and manufacturing costs.

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Atheros has combined the AR9485 with its latest AR3012 Bluetooth solution on a standard half mini-card.

The company claims that the AR9004WB-1NG is the world's first combination product to support the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard, which features a low-energy mode to extend Bluetooth connectivity to sensors and other battery-powered devices.

The new products also include Atheros Direct Connect peer-to-peer technology, which enables computing devices to easily connect with Wi-Fi enabled printers, cameras and other peripherals.

The AR9485 and AR9004WB-1NG are now being sampled, and are expected to be in volume production in Q2, 2011.

Vivek Gupta, vice president and general manager, computing products, Atheros, said: "Power consumption has always been a critical factor for the PC and tablet markets, but even more so with today's increasingly smaller platforms and energy-conscious consumers. Rather than taking incremental steps to improve the efficiency of our connectivity products, Atheros redesigned its architecture to leap-frog the competition with best-in-class performance and power."