TOSHIBA LAUNCHES 5GHZ WIRELESS LAN CHIPSET.Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC TAEC Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.TAEC Thailand Atomic Energy Commission ) has launched 5 gigahertz - (GHz) range chipset that provides the essential components for a high-speed, broadband wireless local area network (WLAN See wireless LAN. WLAN - wireless local area network ) and conforms to the 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. 802.11a specification. The chipset consists of a baseband LSI and intermediate frequency (IF) integrated circuit (IC). "Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba) developed a 5GHz WLAN solution to address the emerging market of wireless audio and video (A/V) distribution in the home of the future," said Farhad Mafie, vice president of the ASSP (Application Specific Standard Part) An ASIC chip that is designed as a generic device for a particular market. Whereas an ASIC is typically used only by its creator, ASSPs are used by many different companies in the design of their products. See ASIC. Business Unit at TAEC. "We believe the 5GHz WLAN is an ideal wireless technology and will become one of the key standards for wirelessly dispersing A/V between residential gateway products and other WLAN-enabled products at home." "Our WLAN chipset was designed to maintain superior sensitivity and data throughput over the longest possible distance," said Andrew Burt, wireless market development director of the ASSP Business Unit at TAEC. "It supports high-speed processing and handling of analog and digital sources combined with low power operation for tomorrow's portable equipment," he added. The baseband large scale integration (LSI), designated TC35672, integrates a dedicated circuit that can process data transferred at 54 megabytes per second (unit) megabytes per second - (MBps, MB/s) Millions of bytes per second. A unit of data rate. 1 MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes per second (not 1,048,576). , and 10-bit analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters that operate at 40 megahertz (MHz). High speed processing and low power consumption are supported by Toshiba's proprietary TX39 core and power management system. The IF IC, designated TA35151, was designed expressly to interface with the baseband LSI. It integrates an orthogonal modulator and demodulator See demodulate. Demodulator A device used to recover the original modulating signal from a modulated wave. A demodulator is also known as a detector. with a direct current (DC) offset function that removes the remaining DC elements in alternating current (AC). Upon receiving a signal from a radio frequency (RF) IC, it executes orthogonal modulation and demodulation and transmits the signal to the baseband LSI. It processes analog signals quickly, with high accuracy. In order to cover an optimized range of signals, both received and transmitted, it enables auto gain control of the amplifier to achieve reception exceeding 70 decibels (dB) and transmission of over 40dB. The chipset supports the CardBus interface and allows integration of Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (body, hardware, standard) Personal Computer Memory Card International Association - (PCMCIA, or "PC Card") An international trade association and the standards they have developed for devicies, such as modems and external hard disk drives, that can be plugged into notebook - (PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, San Jose, CA, www.pcmcia.org) An international standards body and trade association that was founded in 1989 to establish a standard for connecting peripherals to portable computers. PCMCIA created the PC Card. See PC Card. ) based devices, such as peripheral component interconnect See PCI. (hardware) Peripheral Component Interconnect - (PCI) A standard for connecting peripherals to a personal computer, designed by Intel and released around Autumn 1993. PCI is supported by most major manufacturers including Apple Computer. (PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). ) cards, access points, personal computers (PCs) and personal digital assistants. The chipset's interoperability is assured with full conformity to the Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) specification. Future Plans Toshiba is developing an RF IC that includes blocks for a mixer, low noise amplifier and phase-locked loop (PLL), power amplifier and switch. This next generation chipset will offer both 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation, in full compliance with the IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11b standards, respectively. Smart antenna and security technologies, such as the Temporal Keying Integrity Protocol and the Advanced Encryption Standard (cryptography, algorithm) Advanced Encryption Standard - (AES) The NIST's replacement for the Data Encryption Standard (DES). The Rijndael /rayn-dahl/ symmetric block cipher, designed by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, was chosen by a NIST contest to be AES. , will be introduced in the next-generation chipset, thus achieving an ideal combination of highly secure wireless communication. The new chipset will also conform to the IEEE 802.1x authentication specification. The new chipset will be targeted at both Mini-PCI and PCMCIA-based applications. Pricing and Availability Samples of TC35672 and TA35151 are available at $60.00 per piece in 100-piece quantities for TC35672 and $5.00 per piece in 100-piece quantities for TA35151. Mass production is slated to begin in March 2003 and is expected to rise to 100,000 units of each a month in 2003. Specification Summary Part Number TC35672 Specification of Baseband IEEE 802.11a Built-in CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. TX39 RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. core Built-in Memory Buffer random access memory (RAM) and read only memory (ROM) for storing instructions External Interface Interface to TA32151, RF interface and interfaces for external flash ROM and electrically erasable programmable ROM Host Interface CardBus interface for PCMCIA Package FPBGA FPBGA Fine Pitch Ball Grid Array 361-pin (16 x 16 x 1.4 millimeters (mm), pin pitch: 0.8mm) Software Support Firmware for media access control, evaluation and driver firmware for evaluation Part Number TA35151 Operating Frequency 300-600MHz AGC Amplifier Gain -10-60dB (receiver) Modulation/Demodulation Orthogonal modulator and demodulator External Interface Interface to TA35672, RF interface Operating Voltage 2.7 - 3.7 volts Package QON-36-pin (6.2 x 6.2 x 0.8mm) About TAEC Toshiba America Electronic Components offers semiconductors, flash memory-based storage solutions, optical communication devices, displays and rechargeable batteries for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets. TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba, the second largest semiconductor company worldwide in terms of global sales for the year 2001 according to Gartner/Dataquest's Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking. Toshiba is a provider of high-technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For additional company and product information, visit TAEC's web site at http://www.chips.toshiba.com. Toshiba America Electronic Components can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.toshiba.com/taec. For more information, call 408/526-2454. |
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