Qualcomm Atheros: 802.11ac WiFi for smartphones, tablets and notebooks

Atheros is a brand important part of the chipmaker modules that realize the connection, either wireless or wired. Acquired by Qualcomm for some time and became a wholly owned subsidiary that continues to develop solutions for connectivity. The latest announcement is very important because Qualcomm Atheros has introduced its new wireless ecosystem, based on chips that support the standard WiFi 802.11ac, working at a frequency of 5 GHz (instead of the 2.4 GHz versions 802.11a/b/g / n), then with less interference from other radio devices and speeds comparable to those of a wired Gigabit Ethernet, with values ​​of 1.3 Gbps, 900 Mbps and 450 Mbps

Depending on the device used in fact you can have three streams, two or just one. The WCN3680 chip is intended for use in ultra-mobile and mobile devices, from notebook to tablet, up to smartphones. In this case, Qualcomm announced that it will be integrated in its dual-core Snapdragon MSM8960 S4 and S4 in the quad-core APQ8064. The WCN3680 also combines WiFi module with Bluetooth 4.0 and FM ones. For home appliances such as TVs, desktop PCs and notebooks, high-performance Qualcomm Atheros instead proposes two other chips, the model QCA9860, which offers a three-way stream, and QCA9862, the dual stream, both of which also support the Bluetooth .

These three chips also support Intel also Widi (WiFi Display) that lets you connect to compatible TV without the need for external cables. The modules QCA9880 (3-stream) and QCA9882 (2-stream) are no Bluetooth support. For companies Qualcomm Atheros finally proposes other two chips, called respectively QCA9890 (3-stream) and QCA9892 (2-stream) that, in addition to the new standard, also support all previous 802.11a/b/g/n are optimized for the operating indoors.