Resonext Communications Introduces The RN5200 Wi-Fi5 -802.11a- Family of Advanced 5GHz Wireless LAN Chipsets.Business Editors/Technology Writers SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2001 Two Chipsets Provide Complete End-to-End Wireless LAN Solution for Cost Effective, High Performance and Feature-Rich 5GHz Clients and Access Points Resonext(tm) Communications, Inc., an emerging developer of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN See wireless LAN. WLAN - wireless local area network ) semiconductor products, today announced the RN5200 family of 5GHz Wi-Fi5 (802.11a) WLAN chipsets optimized for client and access point (AP) platforms. The Resonext RN5200 chipset family consists of two chipsets targeted at both WLAN clients and APs. Both chipsets incorporate the company's innovations in True Zero-IF 5GHz CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Pronounced "c-moss." The most widely used integrated circuit design. It is found in almost every electronic product from handheld devices to mainframes. radio, flexible Media Access Control (MAC), Access Point on a Chip (APoC) architecture and AccuChannel(tm) equalization technology. These innovations, combined with full IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, www.ieee.org) A membership organization that includes engineers, scientists and students in electronics and allied fields. 802.11i compliant security features implemented into the chipsets, enable Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to reduce the cost of their client and AP products while offering unique differentiated features. "Unlike the other 802.11a chipset vendors, Resonext is providing system OEMs with the most integrated end-to-end WLAN chipset solution. The Resonext solution will drastically reduce AP and client Bill of Material (BOM) costs, while providing the flexibility required to meet our customers demands," commented David Tahmassebi, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Resonext Communications. "Our products are gaining strong reception from our WLAN system customers and we look forward to expediting the proliferation of the 5GHz WLAN infrastructure". Both the RN5200 client and AP solutions consist of two chips - a highly integrated radio frequency (RF) chip and a baseband/MAC IC - each built on the standard 0.18-micron, 1.8-volt CMOS process. Resonext's RN5200 client and AP chipsets are fully 802.11a compliant and support the 5.15-5.35GHz UNII UNII Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure UNII Undistributed Net Investment Income (closed-end mutual funds) bands and up to 54Mbps data rate. The AP chipset, consisting of the RN5200R radio and the RN5200P baseband/MAC IC, enables the lowest cost, high performance and feature-rich AP platforms. The client chipset, comprised of the RN5200R radio and RN5200C baseband/MAC IC, delivers cost effective, low power consumption and differentiable dif·fer·en·tia·ble adj. 1. That can be differentiated: differentiable species. 2. Mathematics Possessing a derivative. PC cards or mini-PCI cards. "Wi-Fi5 is emerging as one of the most spectacular technologies in mobile communications," said Bob Merritt, vice president of Semico Research Corporation. "With its impressive chipset design and features, Resonext has taken a significant step forward in reducing cost, extending range and implementing a flexible architecture that will address current and future standards. We expect Resonext to be a leading contender in driving Wi-Fi5 adoption in the overall market." Cost Effective Platforms Through True Zero-IF CMOS Radio and APoC Architecture Resonext's RN5200R single-chip RF transceiver significantly reduces system design complexity, cost and power consumption while enabling high performance and small form factor platforms. Compared to a traditional superheterodyne See superheterodyne receiver. radio solution, a RF design using Resonext's radio can result in approximately $5 to $7 in component cost savings and approximately 50% reduction in Printed Circuit Board (PCB PCB: see polychlorinated biphenyl. PCB in full polychlorinated biphenyl Any of a class of highly stable organic compounds prepared by the reaction of chlorine with biphenyl, a two-ring compound. ) space. The RN5200R incorporates the company's patented 5GHz True Zero-IF CMOS radio, which directly converts 5GHz to baseband frequencies without any intermediate frequency stages. This innovative Zero-IF architecture is integrated with the required Low Noise Amplifiers (LNA LNA Low-Noise Amplifier LNA Locked Nucleic Acid (Link Technologies Ltd.) LNA Linolenic Acid LNA Licensed Nursing Assistant LNA Launch Numerical Aperture LNA Ladies National Association LNA Leading National Advertisers, Inc. ), filters, Phase Lock Loops (PLL PLL - phase-locked loop ) and Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCO (1) (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) An oscillator that can be tuned over a wide range of frequencies by applying a voltage (tuning voltage) to it. Used in many applications such as radio tuners, VCOs are less costly than crystal oscillators, but not as stable. ) on the 0.18-micron, 1.8-volt CMOS process. For the AP systems, the RN5200 AP chipset adds the Access Point on a Chip (ApoC) architecture in the RN5200P. This reduces the number of external components of an AP by incorporating a dedicated on-chip ARM922T processor core for AP functions and software, an Ethernet 802.3 MAC, a MII 1. (body) MII - A consortium of Microsoft, IBM, and Intel. 2. (storage) MII - A broadcast component video tape format licensed by Panasonic. interface and the entire 802.11a digital subsystem into a single chip. Proprietary on-chip high-speed data path architecture minimizes the latencies typically associated with a conventional AP design using off-the-shelf components. This highly integrated approach significantly reduces the Bill of Materials The list of components that make up a system. For example, a bill of materials for a house would include the cement block, lumber, shingles, doors, windows, plumbing, electric, heating and so on. (BOM) cost for an AP design while resulting in a high performance, scalable and flexible system. High Performance OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) A digital transmission technique that uses a large number of carriers spaced apart at slightly different frequencies. Modem Optimized for Zero-IF and AccuChannel Extended Range The RN5200 chipsets include a fully compliant 802.11a OFDM modem delivering speeds of 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48 and 54Mbps. The modem also contains proprietary algorithms optimized for True Zero-IF system performance with patent pending DC offset removal and IQ imbalance correction algorithms. Resonext's proprietary AccuChannel equalization technology in the modem extends the range and data rates for WLAN deployment by counteracting the effects of signal degradation caused by real world impairments such as multi-path delays and signal attenuation Loss of signal power in a transmission. Attenuation The reduction in level of a transmitted quantity as a function of a parameter, usually distance. It is applied mainly to acoustic or electromagnetic waves and is expressed as the ratio of power densities. . This unique architecture provides a range increase for all data rates by using a patent pending channel estimation and adaptive equalization technique that improves the signal-to-noise ratio by 3dB beyond traditional methods of equalization. The benefit of AccuChannel is lower deployment cost by reducing the number of access points required for a given deployment area. Feature-Rich Platforms Through Flexible MAC and Full 802.11i Security Mechanisms Resonext has implemented a fully IEEE 802.11 compliant MAC based on a programmable ARM processor which is responsible for executing the MAC firmware with hardware assist for time critical operations. The flexibility of the architecture results in the full support of the 802.11i security specifications as well as provisions to support upcoming IEEE standards in Quality of Service (QoS) as defined by IEEE 802.11e and Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) as well as Transmit Power Control Transmit Power Control is a technical mechanism used within some networking devices in order to prevent too much unwanted interference between different wireless networks (e.g. the owner's network and the neighbour's network). (TPC) as defined by IEEE 802.11h. The MAC also enables specific OEM MAC differentiating features and the ability for field upgrade of the MAC code. Both the RN5200 client and AP chipsets have built in support for comprehensive encryption and authentication security features being finalized in the IEEE 802.11i Task Group. End-to-end WLAN systems, based on the Resonext chipsets, benefit from the Advanced Encryption System (AES) OCB implemented in hardware along with the RC4 encryption engines for WEP40 and WEP128. The RN5200 chipsets also include the support for 128-bit Initialization Vector (IV) and 802.1x authentication. RN5200 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS RN5200R/RN5200C Client Chipset The RN5200 client chipset consists of the two-chip combination of the RN5200R RF transceiver and the RN5200C baseband/MAC IC. This chipset supports PC Card, PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). or Mini-PCI interfaces as well as memory devices including SRAM See static RAM. SRAM - static random-access memory , ROM, FLASH, SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) A type of dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory chip that has been widely used since the late 1990s. SDRAM chips eliminated wait states by dividing the chip into two cell blocks and interleaving data between them. and EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM) A rewritable memory chip that holds its content without power. Although EEPROMs spawned flash memory, EEPROMs are byte addressable at the write level, whereas flash chips must erase a block of bytes before rewriting. . Also included are integrated power management capabilities for ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) A power management specification developed by Intel, Toshiba and Microsoft that makes hardware status information available to the operating system. V2.0, host interface, selective clock gating and various low power modes. The combination of Zero-IF CMOS radio, flexible MAC, AccuChannel equalization and the complete 802.11i security mechanism makes this chipset ideal for small form factor client cards for notebook and small portable platforms. RN5200R/RN5200P AP Chipset The Resonext AP chipset consists of the RN5200R and the RN5200P baseband/MAC IC featuring Access Point on a Chip architecture. In addition to a flexible MAC, AccuChannel equalization and the complete 802.11i security mechanism, the RN5200P baseband/MAC chip has 64MB external addressable memory for MAC and AP software and supports popular memory types including SRAM, ROM, FLASH, SDRAM and EEPROM. The IO interface is expanded to include MII to connect an external Ethernet PHY and a RS232 port for configuration. Pricing and Availability The Resonext RN5200 family of 5GHz Wi-Fi5 WLAN chipsets is manufactured in a 0.18-micron, 1.8-volt (3.3-volt digital I/O) standard CMOS process. The RN5200R single-chip RF transceiver for both client and AP configurations is housed in a 64-pin MLF package, the RN5200C client baseband/MAC in a 288-pin BGA package and the RN5200P AP single-chip baseband/MAC in a 340-pin BGA package. The RN5200 client is priced at $35 in 100,000 unit quantities and the AP chipset is priced at $45. The complete engineering samples of both chipsets will be available in the first quarter of 2002 along with a reference design. Evaluation kits are available to select OEMs starting in the fourth quarter of 2001. Volume production is scheduled for mid-2002. About Resonext Communications, Inc. Resonext Communications, Inc. is a fab-less semiconductor company that develops complete chipsets and software for the emerging 5GHz Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) market. Resonext's innovative technologies enable high performance, cost effective, scalable and power efficient WLAN systems for the enterprise, small business and home markets. The company's products include Radio Frequency (RF) on CMOS, digital baseband and Media Access Controller (MAC) as well as protocol stack software. Resonext has experienced management and engineering teams with extensive wireless communications experience and a rich IP portfolio. Resonext is privately held and is based in San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. . For more information, please visit the Resonext website at www.resonext.com. Note to Editors: Resonext and AccuChannel are trademarks of Resonext Communications, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
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