Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 31, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Semiconductor manufacturer Atheros has announced a breakthrough in the area of energy consumption and presented what it says is the world’s most economical WLAN chip for mobile devices. The microchips of the AR6002 family are said to consume “almost zero energy” in standby mode, the manufacturer said in a mailing. Furthermore, Atheros engineers were able to reduce power consumption in active mode by 70 percent compared with similar components.
With the new chips, smartphones and PDAs receive a significantly longer battery life. An averge mobile phone battery with 800 mAh is said to enable a continuous VoIP call of 100 hours in conjunction with the Atheros chip. In addition to the data-conserving VoIP application, however, the components would be ideally suited to broadband uses. Devices equipped with the chip could download up to 200 gigabytes of data without requiring an external power supply, the manufacturer promises.
Atheros offers the chip series in four variants. They are said to support the 802.11a or 802.11g wireless standards and be able to transmit in the 2.4 or 5.0 gigahertz frequency bands. They are also said to work with encryption technologies up to WPA2. The energy-saving chips are to be found mainly in smartphones and thus significantly reduce the overall consumption of the devices, which often support several wireless technologies for data communication. The company is currently shipping the first samples of the AR6002 series. Mass production is scheduled to begin in early 2008.
