Wave Issue 0301 1/17/03 Article 5-01

***Atheros Receives Wi-Fi Certification For Dual-Band 802.11a and
b Interoperability
(January 16)

Atheros Communications, a developer of wireless LAN (WLAN)
chipsets, today announced that its AR5001AP 802.11a access point
reference design (model AR5BAP-00021A) and AR5001X dual-band
(802.11a/b) CardBus reference design (model AR5BCB-00022A) have
received the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED seal of interoperability from the
Wi-Fi Alliance.

The AR5001X-based design is the first dual-band 5 GHz/2.4 GHz
product to pass the Wi-Fi interoperability certification testing.
The certification of this reference design will enable products
based on this design to achieve certification more quickly.

Atheros' reference designs were among the first group of 802.11a
and dual-band products to pass the Wi-Fi Alliance's
interoperability certification testing, which was conducted at
the organization's San Jose, California laboratory beginning
November 29, 2002. Only products that satisfied all prerequisites
for certification and passed the compatibility benchmark received
the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED seal of interoperability.

Wi-Fi products comprise one of the fastest growing segments of
the high-technology market. Dual-band products provide the higher
available data rates of 802.11a standard, while providing
backward compatibility with the installed base of 802.11b
products. Dual-band products also provide up to five times the
speed and over 20 times the user capacity of 802.11b-only
products, according to Atheros.

Introduced in September 2000, the Atheros AR5000 chipset was an
early 802.11a chipset. In March 2002, Atheros introduced and
began shipping in volume a dual-band 802.11a/b WLAN chipset, the
AR5001X, and its second-generation chipset for integrated 802.11a
access point designs, the AR5001AP. Atheros has more than 50
publicly announced customers that are using the company's 802.11a
and dual-band (802.11a and 802.11b) reference designs.

www.atheros.com