Atheros Communications, a developer of advanced, multimode wireless LAN technology, announced that its 802.11g wireless-system-on-a-chip (WiSOC) chipset is featured in the new Xbox Wireless Adapter (MN-740) from Microsoft. The chipset enables users to connect to any 802.11g or 802.11b Wi-Fi network and play games wirelessly via the Xbox Live service, the world's largest all-broadband console gaming service. Atheros worked closely with Microsoft's Xbox and Broadband Networking Groups to develop the wireless LAN adapter. Xbox Wireless Adapter began shipping in the U.S. and Canada this month at an estimated U.S. retail price of USD 139.
With this new adapter, Xbox will deliver both high-performance wireless gaming and an easy-to-use, seamless user experience, said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros. Atheros' wireless LAN technology is ideally suited for high-bandwidth, consumer applications like gaming, and we will continue to help partners like Microsoft develop multimedia products with advanced wireless capabilities.
Supporting the 802.11g Wi-Fi standard, Xbox Wireless Adapter allows gamers to experience data rate transfer speeds up to 54 Mbps, which is five times faster than an 802.11b Wi-Fi network. The higher performance provides a significant increase in throughput, which results in a better user playing experience, including higher quality multiplayer and head-to-head gaming, live chats and other bandwidth-intensive applications.
Atheros' high performance and standards-based wireless LAN technologies made its chipset a preferred solution for Microsoft, said Todd Greenberg, product manager for Broadband Networking at Microsoft Corp. This first-of-its-kind wireless adapter for Xbox gaming will make it much more convenient to experience Xbox Live from any Xbox-connected television in the home, without the need to use messy cables or drill holes in the walls.
The Xbox Wireless Adapter uses Atheros' 802.11g WiSOC chipset, which supports 802.11b and 802.11g networks in the 2.4-GHz band. Atheros chipsets support the latest wireless security standards such as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and draft 802.11i Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) without reducing performance. They also include draft 802.11e Quality of Service enhancements for multimedia and voice chat applications. For more information about Atheros, follow the download tab above.