AMD to release two-chip WLAN chipset
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has developed a chipset for 802.11b wireless cards that will reduce the amount of processing power...
The AMD Alchemy Solutions Am1772 consists of two chips, a radio transceiver and a baseband processor.
The transceiver makes use of an architecture called Direct Down Conversion that reduces the number of components on the chip, eliminating the need for a third intermediate frequency chip found in older designs.
The Am1772 allows notebook and personal digital assistant (PDA) manufacturers to develop cheaper devices by removing an on-chip microcontroller that used expensive static RAM (SRAM) or flash memory.
Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology also increases the battery power of devices with the chipset.
Several companies have released two-chip WLAN platforms and leading vendors such as Intersil and Intel are working on single-chip designs.
The Am1772 will be available in the first quarter of 2003 and is shipping now in sample volumes to designers.
