Atheros and QUALCOMM Target Cellular/Wi-Fi Solution

Atheros Communications and QUALCOMM announced a partnership to offer a cellular/Wi-Fi solution. The companies initially will develop interoperability between Atheros' single-chip Radio-on-Chip for Mobile(ROCm) solution and select QUALCOMM Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets. The ROCm solution will initially interoperate with the MSM6550 for CDMA2000 networks and the MSM6280 chipset for WCDMA (UMTS) networks. The combined solutions will enable cellular devices to support 802.11g and 802.11a/g wireless LAN (WLAN) technology.



The companies are demonstrating the initial interoperable Atheros ROCm and QUALCOMM MSM solution at this week's at 3GSM in Barcelona. The solutions is scheduled to be commercially available by June 2006.



"We are pleased to work with QUALCOMM, the recognized leader in CDMA and 3G cellular technologies," said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros Communications. "Our relationship has resulted in the combination of two of the world's most popular wireless technologies in a single solution. This will result in true mobility, enabling wireless users to achieve anywhere, anytime connectivity to people, content and services."



"The strategic collaboration between QUALCOMM and Atheros focuses on the growing worldwide demand for additional connectivity features in mobile handsets," said Mike Concannon, vice president of strategic products for QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. "Having support for Atheros' ROCm solutions on our MSM chipsets helps us continue to bring a new level of mobility to wireless users and deliver numerous new possibilities to the wireless industry."



The ROCm solutions supported by QUALCOMM's MSM chipsets will provide handset OEMs and ODMs with an additional way to address the rapidly growing market for advanced mobile phones that deliver voice, data, multimedia content and services across both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. WLAN technology offers support for applications such as VoIP, voice calls with simultaneous data transfer and other data-intensive applications.

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