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Redpine Signals News & Events
Press Releases
Redpine Signals Introduces Industry's First Ultra Low Power Draft-802.11n Compliant Wi-Fi(R) Solution for Mobile DevicesRedpine's Lite-Fi(TM) Ultra Low Power 11n (1x1) Solution Targets Emerging Mobile Platforms With Industry Leading Performance and Power Profile The Lite-Fi™ Low-Power WLAN Platform provides all the features essential for supporting WLAN integration into smart handheld devices including Bluetooth coexistence, SDIO and SPI host interfaces, fixed/mobile convergence protocol assists, integrated Power Manager, minimal requirement on host MIPS and interrupt latency, multiple frequency oscillator support, and reference drivers for popular operating systems such as Windows CE and Linux. The Lite-Fi™ platform comes with a choice of two 11n draft compliant radio transceivers -- the MAX2831 from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., Sunnyvale, USA. and the AL8136 from Airoha Technology Corporation, Hsinchu, Taiwan. The Lite-Fi™ consumes less than 250 mW during receive operations at the maximum link rate of 65 Mbps. This includes the power consumed by the RF Transceiver, MAC, Baseband processor, two highly optimized processing systems and host interfaces. It represents an optimized and industry leading solution for battery operated mobile devices where extended range and longer battery life are highly desired. "The power consumed by a wireless device for a given amount of data decreases in inverse proportion to the rate at which the data can be transferred," explained Venkat Mattela, Redpine's Chief Executive Officer. "Wireless communication systems suffer from drops in throughput when operating at suboptimal ranges or in hostile environments, resulting in excessive battery drain for transferring a given amount of data. Lite-Fi™ offers mobile consumer devices significantly more battery life utilizing its high performance receiver and low intrinsic power consumption," he added. Redpine's Lite-Fi™ is the first single-antenna product in the market to offer the performance and throughput features of 802.11n. The Redpine Lite-Fi™ platform today interoperates with off-the-shelf draft-11n compliant products from multiple vendors such as the DLink DIR-635, the Netgear WNR-854T, and the Netgear WNR-854B -- each incorporating chipsets from different draft-11n compliant silicon providers. The Redpine Lite-Fi™ platform, communicating with these off-the-shelf draft 11n compliant devices, today achieves an industry highest user data throughput of over 48 Mbps on an SDIO 1.1 interface to a WinCE host -- enabling the twin benefits of high throughput and low power consumption. The Redpine draft-802-11n compliant 1x1 solution solves the problems that are hindering the widespread attachment of Wi-Fi connectivity to the Mobile platforms -- the robustness of the wireless connection and acceptable power profile. The Lite-Fi™ platform incorporates decoding of STBC diversity coded transmissions from Draft 11n complaint Access Points (AP) which increases connection robustness; and utilizes 11n MAC efficiency to provide high throughput on a single antenna system. Both improvements are critical for reducing system power on a Mobile platform. "The 11n 1x1 configuration will accelerate attachment of Wi-Fi to mobile devices and we see more than 60% savings in power consumption for file downloads compared to other 11abg solutions, even when operating at similar active power consumption," added Mr. Mattela. "We have worked with Redpine the last few years in providing total solutions that differentiate in performance and power," said Walter Lau, Business Manager at the Wireless Communications Group of Maxim Integrated Products. "MAX2831's outstanding performance -- a Receiver EVM of -34 dB and noise figure of 2.7 dB and an integrated +17dBm PA -- and flexibility enable system level optimization that maximizes total system range & throughput performance while offering a low average power consumption," he added. "Airoha and Redpine have worked closely in combining our individually outstanding products into a WLAN solution that is exceptionally cost effective for high volume connectivity deployment," said Michael Lu, Chief Executive Officer of Airoha Technology Corporation, based in Taiwan. "The integration and combined operation of Redpine's Lite-Fi™ and Airoha's AL8136 is a perfect case in achieving the benefits of system-level power-save techniques utilizing close knowledge and fine-grained control of critical system components," he added. "In all, there are over 20 pending patents on the fundamental innovations that have gone into the Lite-Fi™ platform and many years of effort in optimizing the system to lead in all competitive metrics -- die size, wireless performance and power," added Mr. Mattela. "Proprietary and patent-pending algorithms reduce power consumption while remaining compliant with the standards. The Lite-Fi™ platform is now available for strategic partners, silicon samples in Q1 of 2007." About Lite-Fi™ The Lite-Fi™ ultra-low power 1x1 802.11abgn platform from Redpine Signals provides a complete standards compliant solution for low power mobile applications with additional support for 802.11k and 11r. It includes a Baseband Processor (BBP), Medium Access Controller (MAC), Analog Front End (AFE) with PLL, Power Management Unit (PMU), the Maxim MAX2831 RF transceiver with built-in Power Amplifier (PA) or the Airoha AL8136 RF transceiver with built-in power amplifier, as well as SDIO and SPI host interfaces. The SDIO interface uniquely supports all 802.11g and 1x1 802.11n data rates up to 65 Mbps with user throughput in excess of 48 Mbps, with all the processing performed internally, not loading the host processor. The platform supports advanced Bluetooth coexistence. In addition, the Lite-Fi™ platform includes device drivers for Linux, Windows CE 5.0 and Windows XP. About Redpine Signals, Inc. Redpine Signals is a leading semiconductor solutions supplier for new and emerging wireless communication standards. Redpine offers proven platform solutions for wireless standards including IEEE 802.11 (WLAN), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) and Wi-Fi/WiMAX convergence. Redpine Signals is headquartered in San Jose, CA. and has state of the art R&D facilities in Hyderabad, India. Additional information about Redpine Signals is available at http://www.redpinesignals.com. |
