Atheros Communications, Inc. has launched the AR8216, the company’s first 6-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch that supports a wide array of wired and wireless networking applications. It and also targets mainstream 802.11n and 802.11g wireless router and gateway platforms. With the launch of its own Fast Ethernet switch solution, Atheros now provides networking customers with all of the major silicon required for complete wire-to-wireless router solutions. These single-source, networking designs feature Atheros’ wireless LAN (WLAN), which the company says are the industry’s only network processors designed expressly for Wi-Fi and the company’s new Fast Ethernet switch.

Ethernet technology has the largest installed base for delivering multimedia throughout the home and for connecting wireless access points and PCs. Fast Ethernet switches dominate the Ethernet segment, particularly in the mid-to-low-tier networking markets. While adoption of Gigabit Ethernet will expand in high-end, 802.11n-based solutions requiring the highest bandwidths for multimedia applications, Fast Ethernet readily serves mainstream networking applications in cost-sensitive 802.11n and 802.11g products.

In the near-term, mid-to-low-tier networking products for 802.11n and 802.11g are expected to account for the greatest unit volume in the WLAN retail and gateway markets. Mid-priced 802.11n products will drive adoption of the newest WLAN technology, while demand for legacy 802.11g will continue to serve the low-end Wi-Fi market.

The AR8216 provides cost-effective and power-efficient Fast Ethernet connectivity for SOHO and SMB, wired and wireless networks. The AR8216 offers design flexibility with its 6-port configuration consisting of five 10/100 Ethernet PHY ports, one MII port for CPU connectivity and six independent Media Access Controllers (MACs).

It offers a small footprint through a significantly reduced number of system components in a 10mm x 10mm, 80-pin, low-profile quad flat package. As a result, the AR8216 is only one-third the size of typical solutions and delivers low RBOM, maximum design flexibility and increased cost savings.

To provide non-blocking switching performance in all traffic environments, the AR8216 supports an advanced QoS architecture. This Atheros-designed architecture prioritizes switch traffic for different classes of applications, such as voice traffic for IP phones, video traffic for multimedia and data traffic for e-mail.

The AR8216 supports ingress policing and egress rate limiting, as well as IPv4 IGMP and IPv6 MLD snooping to improve the performance of streaming media and other bandwidth-intensive IP multicast applications. In addition, virtual LANs are supported for separation of different users or groups on the network. The AR8216 is currently sampling to key customers.