WiFi Insider


The building blocks for Atheros' IEEE 802.11 products are
  • Radios
  • Baseband Processor + MAC
  • Microprocessors

Atheros chips may be historically categorized into three generations. The first generation chips only suppported IEEE 802.11a mode of operation. The second generation of chips supported IEEE 802.11b/g and IEEE 802.11a/b/g. The third generation of chips support IEEE 802.11b/g/n and IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n.



Below is a partial list of Atheros chips that have been released into the market:
Chip Description

AR5110802.11a Radio for 5GHz
AR51112nd generation 802.11a Radio for 5GHz
AR2111802.11b/g Radio for 2.4GHz and acts as a frontend to AR5111
AR5112802.11a/b/g Radio for 2.4GHz and 5GHz
AR2112802.11b/g Radio for 2.4GHz

AR5210802.11a MAC/BB
AR5211802.11a MAC/BB (how is it different from AR5210?)
AR5212MAC/BB for 802.11a or 802.11b/g

AR2413 Radio/BB/MAC for 802.11b/g
AR2414 Radio/BB/MAC for 802.11b/g
AR2415 Radio/BB/MAC for 802.11b/g
AR2417 ?
AR2425 Radio/BB/MAC with PCIe for 802.11b/g
AR5413 Radio/BB/MAC for 802.11a/b/g

AR2312 BB/MAC/Processor for 802.11a or 802.11b/g
AR2313 BB/MAC/Processor for 802.11a or 802.11b/g
AR5311 BB/MAC/Processor for 802.11a
AR5312 2xBB/2xMAC/Processor for 802.11a and 802.11b/g dual concurrent operation

AR2315 Radio/MAC/BB/Processor for 802.11b/g
AR2316 AR2315 + SuperG(?)
AR2317 Radio/MAC/BB/Processor for 802.11b/g
AR2318 AR2317 + SuperG (?)

AR2122 802.11n 2x2 Radio for 2.4GHz
AR2133 802.11n 3x3 Radio for 2.4GHz
AR5133 802.11n 3x3 Radio for 2.4 and 5GHz
AR9102 802.11n 2x2 Radio for 2.4GHz
AR9103 802.11n 3x3 Radio for 2.4GHz
AR9104 802.11n 2x2 Radio for 2.4 or 5GHz
AR9106 802.11n 3x3 Radio for 2.4 or 5GHz

AR5416 802.11n MAC/BB with PCI/Cardbus
AR5418 802.11n MAC/BB with PCIe
AR9160 802.11n 3x3 2xBB/2xMAC with PCI/Cardbus (?)
AR9161 802.11n MAC/BB with PCIe

AR9280 802.11n Radio/MAC/BB
AR9285 802.11n Radio/MAC/BB

AR71xx, AR91xxMIPS24K SoC Processor