Philips Ships Six Million+ IEEE 802.11b Chipsets

Industry pundits have been predicting the acceptance of wireless networking for some time and, if chip shipments are any indication of what the future holds (they usually are) there's a good chance you'll soon be using an IEEE 802.11b network. Philips says it has shipped over six million of the radio silicon wonders to date. A statement from Philips says that it expects approximately 7.7 million WLAN chipsets to be produced in 2001. Lest you think that that means other wireless standards are out of the picture, Philips also produces chipsets for Bluetooth-enabled devices. The biggest player in Philips' 802.11 game is the SA2400A single-chip radio, which it says eliminates external filters and other components, while integrating everything needed for radio operation, including receiver, transmitter, synthesizer and VCO. The IEEE 802.11b SA2400A single-chip radio is currently available from Philips Semiconductors and sells for $4.90 in volume quantities.