Chipworks Reveals Breakthroughs in Wireless LAN and CMOS Technology.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2002

Chipworks Chipworks, a world class leading supplier of reverse engineering services for the semiconductor, photonics and electronic systems markets, today announced that they have released their findings describing the breakthroughs in wireless LAN and CMOS technology discovered inside the Atheros AR5000 Wireless LAN Chipset.

"This device is designed to provide a cost effective high-speed, high-capacity wireless LAN connectivity based on a 5GHz standard IEEE 802.11a," stated Julia Elvidge, Chipworks' vice president of marketing and sales. "Although a two chip set, Chipworks chose to reverse engineer the AR5110 transceiver over the AR5210A baseband processor portion based on its innovative design and functionality."

According to Ms. Elvidge, "the Atheros AR5110 is not very advanced in relation to size and process. Where it differs from its competitors is in relation to its unique design structure of the transceiver and the integration of many typical off-chip components.

The architecture includes dual conversion rather than fixed IF for both the transmitter and the receiver. From this the designers were able to achieve the 802.11a standard without the use of off-chip surface acoustic wave filters (SAW) used for image rejection. Traditionally most companies use off-chip SAW." claims Ms. Elvidge.

The on-chip power amplifier in the transmitter chain with linear output power provides control of all 52 sub-carriers with same gain and same linearity for complex modulation schemes (BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64 QAM). Again unlike Atheros, other manufacturers have chosen to keep the power amplifier separate from the device. Atheros also claims that the power amplifier can achieve 22 dBm peak output power and 17.8 dBm average OFDM output power.

"What makes this chip so important is that it is the first chip to use standard 0.25 um CMOS technology for this type of application. Under a microscope, the device presents unique and innovative circuitry providing its creators a strong competitive advantage. From an architecture and circuitry point of view the design is very good and the layout is exceptional because it is a digital process." said Ms. Elvidge.

Chipworks has documented these and related findings in two of its report formats designed to provide critical inside information of leading-edge semiconductor technology products and devices, helping companies decrease their time-to-market, motivate and challenge in-house design teams, and benchmark existing products against the competition.

About Chipworks

Chipworks is an internationally recognized technical services company that analyzes the circuitry and physical composition of semiconductors, photonics and electronic systems for a wide range of applications in intellectual property licensing, patenting, competitive study, technical consulting, investment analysis, and technical training seminars. Chipworks has successfully helped leading-edge semiconductor and electronics organizations achieve their goals by supporting research and development efforts in strategic product development and patent portfolio management. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, the Company has offices in the United States, Japan, and Poland. Chipworks can be visited via the Internet at www.chipworks.com.