SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Hoping to beat Intel Corp. to the punch, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has entered the wireless local-area networking (WLAN) chip market by rolling out a product line geared for notebook PCs and other products.
AMD introduced two products, including the Am1772 wireless LAN chip set and a mini-PCI card reference design kit. Both products support the IEEE 802.11b WLAN standard.
The Sunnyvale-based company hopes to beat Intel to market by targeting its device at the notebook PC arena. Intel also plans to enter the WLAN chip set market, but plans to sell its WLAN device as part of a "system solution" along with its next-generation mobile processor, code-named Banias. Banias is due out in 2003.
In addition to Intel, AMD will also compete other WLAN chip makers, such as Agere and Intersil, according to analysts.
Meanwhile, the Am1772 chip set will lower system cost, but provide a longer battery life for PCs, said William Edwards, AMD's vice president and general manager for the Personal Connectivity Solutions Group. "This will be AMD's bold first step into the wireless market, and the first of several wireless products we plan to introduce over the next 12 months," he said in a statement.
"Ultimately, we intend to continue to provide industry-leading wireless technology for our customers, and to integrate that technology into our MIPS technology-based AMD Alchemy Solutions system-on-a-chip processors," he said. The AMD executive was referring to Alchemy Solutions, a supplier of RISC-based processors that was recently acquired by AMD.
The Am1772 wireless chip set is a CMOS-based solution that combines a baseband processor and a media-access controller, with a descriptor-based direct memory access (DMA) host interface. The CMOS design helps reduce power consumption for the mini-PCI-based reference design to 134 mA while receiving, and 232 mA while in the transmission mode, the company said.
The Am1772 chip set is comprised of the Am1770 radio frequency transceiver and the Am1771 baseband processor and MAC. The Am1770 transceiver utilizes direct down conversion, which eliminates the requirement for an intermediate frequency (IF) chip.
Widespread availability for sampling of the Am1772 chip set is scheduled for this month and production availability is planned in Q1 2003.
