Atheros Strongly Endorses the Newly Ratified IEEE 802.11g Standard.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 13, 2003

All Shipping 802.11b/g and 802.11a/b/g Retail, Laptop, and

Enterprise Products Based on Atheros' Chipsets Are 100%

Compliant with Final 802.11g Standard

Atheros Communications, the market share leader in multi-standard wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, applauds the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) ratification of the 802.11g standard. All of the company's market-leading second-generation and third-generation 11a/b/g and 11b/g chipsets are fully compliant with the final 802.11g standard.

Dozens of retail and enterprise customers such as D-Link, NETGEAR and Proxim are now shipping WLAN products featuring Atheros' innovative, high performance single- and dual-band 11g-compliant chipsets. Atheros also has customer relationships with major PC vendors such as HP, IBM, NEC and Toshiba. Now that the 11g standard has been finalized, notebook PC vendors will be able to offer fully compliant 11a/b/g and 11b/g wireless capabilities into their laptops.

Last week, Atheros announced the volume availability of its third-generation AR5002 product line featuring universal 802.11a/b/g and 802.11b/g solutions. The new chipsets and software are fully compliant with the final 11g standard.

"All of the IEEE's hard work and time spent in developing the 11g standard has finally paid off," said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer at Atheros. "The standard's approval means 802.11b/g and universal 802.11a/b/g products will be in even greater demand by retail, enterprise and PC manufacturers. Atheros is pleased to be able to support its customers needs with products that are 100 percent compliant with the new 11g standard."

The most advanced wireless networking chips available today

Atheros' second and third-generation chipsets provide numerous improvements in performance and range, while reducing power consumption compared to competing products. Rather than relying exclusively on hefty battery-draining power amplifiers and low-noise amplifiers to improve range, Atheros has increased the radio chip's receive sensitivity and multipath tolerance to unprecedented levels. With a given transmit power, the new chips offer far better range and throughput than products based on competitor's less-efficient solutions.

The chipsets also implement Atheros Super G(TM) and Super A/G(TM) capabilities, delivering 90 Mbps of actual end user TCP/IP throughput for 802.11a/b/g, 802.11b/g and 802.11a WLANs. These standards-based and fully interoperable capabilities include a new 108-Mbps data rate design for 802.11a and 802.11g, a real-time hardware data compression engine, standards-compliant bursting support, and dynamic transmit and modulation optimizations. Super G and Super A/G are backward compatible with conventional 802.11b, 11g and 11a products. The features support mixed-mode operation with Atheros and third-party solutions in the same network.

Atheros' performance enhancements achieve more than 10 times the actual throughput of other wireless LAN solutions, offer unmatched network scalability, and are fully compatible with legacy and third-party equipment. Competing solutions that offer special turbo or bursting modes are only effective under limited network conditions and adversely affect users of 802.11b or third-party 802.11g products.

About Atheros Communications, Inc.

Atheros Communications is the leading developer of networking technologies for secure, high-performance wireless local area networks. As the industry innovator and market-share leader in multi-mode wireless solutions compliant with the IEEE 802.11 specifications, Atheros is driving transparent connections among electronic devices in the office, home and on the road. Atheros technology is being used by many of the world's leading wireless equipment manufacturers including 3Com, Accton, Actiontec, Acrowave Systems, AIRAYA, Airespace, AirVast Technology, ALPS, Ambit, Aruba Wireless Networks, Askey, ASUS, Avaya, BenQ, Chantry Networks, Contec, CyberTAN, Dacom, Delta Networks, D-Link, Gemtek, Gigabyte Technology, Global Sun Tech, HP, IBM, ICOM, Intel, Intermec, I-O Data, Linksys, NEC, NETGEAR, Nortel, Philips, Proxim, Samsung, Senao, SMC Networks, Sony, Symbol Technologies, TDK, TECOM, Toshiba, Trapeze Networks, USI, W2 Networks, Wistron NeWeb, Z-Com and others. For more information, visit www.atheros.com or send email to [e-mail].

Note to Editors: Atheros and the Atheros logo are registered trademarks of Atheros Communications, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.