PALO ALTO, CA, August 18, 2003 - Airgo Networks, a developer of innovative wireless technology and products, today announced that its AGN100 Wi-Fi chipset is available for sampling. Airgo?s chipset establishes a new frontier for wireless performance and launches the next generation of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Using Airgo?s unique multiple antenna system, the AGN100 extends existing Wi-Fi rates to 108 Mbps per channel while remaining compatible with all common Wi-Fi standards. In head-to-head testing, the AGN100 demonstrated range that was two to six times that of competing WLAN chipsets, resulting in an order-of-magnitude increase in the area covered by each access point.

The superior performance of Airgo?s technology reduces the cost and complexity of WLAN business infrastructure, enables new applications like high-definition video distribution and overcomes many of the existing hurdles to a positive user experience.
?The Airgo team has removed all the fundamental technical barriers to WLAN adoption such as spotty coverage, limited range, insufficient speeds, inadequate security, and a confusing array of standards,? said Greg Raleigh, chief executive officer of Airgo. ?By resolving all of these difficult problems in a single highly advanced cost effective solution for OEMs, Wi-Fi can finally fulfill the wireless promise of seamless, cost effective and secure home multimedia networks, enterprise data networks and Wi-Fi hotspots.?
With Airgo?s chipset, consumer electronics manufacturers can now realize their vision of enabling the multimedia wireless home with simultaneous transmission of high definition video, DVD-quality music, interactive gaming and data networking. Equally, wireless LAN equipment manufacturers wanting to offer standards-compliant products able to cover a typical office environment with only one access point or provision an entire campus with minimum equipment and deployment costs now have the technology they need.
?Wireless equipment manufacturers who have examined our technology realize that Airgo?s high throughput Wi-Fi performance will be a compelling, differentiating feature in laptop PCs, HDTVs, PDAs and enterprise network products,? added Raleigh.
Airgo?s chipset greatly increases the throughput, range, and reliability of Wi-Fi devices by utilizing Airgo?s breakthrough multi-antenna transmission and reception technology. The chipset is the world?s first mass-market product to incorporate Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology: the most sophisticated and highest performance class of smart antenna signal processing. The AGN100 achieves the promise of the pioneering multi-antenna signal processing research that Airgo founders began at Stanford University in 1995.
?Airgo's MIMO implementation brings a new class of performance to wireless LANs," said Craig J. Mathias, a principal with Ashland, MA-based, wireless advisory firm Farpoint Group. "MIMO is likely the only viable path to significantly improved range and throughput in WLAN systems, both today and in the future.?
Breakthrough wireless performance forms the starting point for the advantages of Airgo?s WLAN chipset. Airgo has also re-thought the entire network solution, designing features into the chipset to support robust security, quality of service for video and music or voice over IP, roaming, and other networking features that aid in the deployment and operation of Wi-Fi networks. The chipset also supports the same extremely strong standards-based network security technology used in the most demanding enterprise Ethernet networks, ending the need for proprietary wireless LAN security patches.

AGN100 High Throughput Chipset ? Available Now
The AGN100 is a highly integrated two-chip set that includes a Baseband/MAC chip (AGN100BB) and an RF chip (AGN100RF). The chipset is built with a scalable architecture that allows manufacturers to implement single antenna systems using just one RF chip or increase performance by adding additional RF chips.
The chipset supports all 802.11 a, b, and g modes and also extends rates to 108 Mbps. It incorporates the latest innovations from the IEEE 802.11 working group including (draft) TGi security and TGe quality of service features. Airgo has worked with its manufacturing partners to create ready-to-produce designs for Access Points as well as Cardbus, MiniPCI, and PCI clients. Sample products utilizing the AGN100 wireless chipset are now available from Airgo?s manufacturing partners to qualified network equipment manufacturers and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Airgo is also developing software for complete wireless network solutions that takes advantage of the features that are built into the hardware products.

Top Tier Funding and World Leading Team
Founded in 2000, Airgo has raised three rounds of funding totaling $52 million from leading venture capitalist firms including Accel Partners, Nokia Venture Partners, OVP Venture Funds, and Sevin Rosen Funds. Airgo?s engineering and management team comprises many of the wireless industry?s most accomplished leaders. The experts at Airgo include the original pioneers in MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology, the architect for much of the wireless technology used today in the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standards, the developers of both the Apple Airport and Intel Centrino wireless LAN RF chipset solutions, and a leading team of wireless networking software and wireless network management innovators.

About Airgo Networks, Inc.
Airgo Networks develops breakthrough technology and Wireless LAN products that enable mainstream adoption and new applications by vastly improving the quality and convenience of the Wireless LAN user experience. Airgo's networking solutions, based on the IEEE 802.11 standard (also known as Wi-Fi), reduce the cost of ownership for WLAN and remove limitations of today's WLAN products. Airgo's technology gives users secure, easy-to-use, standards-compliant WLAN capability that works in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. The breakthrough wireless technology provides performance for even the most bandwidth-intensive applications -- truly eliminating the need for wires at home, at work, and in public places. The core team at Airgo comprises a world-renowned group of wireless product and technology entrepreneurs from Agere Systems, Bell Labs, Cisco Systems, Intel Corporation, Nortel Networks, and Royal Philips Electronics. Airgo's founders include founders of Clarity Wireless, a company that revolutionized OFDM wireless technology and was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998. Airgo's founders also include key technologists from Agere who invented the latest generation of Wireless LAN standards technology. The company's main office is in Palo Alto, California, USA, and it has development centers located in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Breukelen, The Netherlands. News and information are available at http://www.airgonetworks.com.

Source: Airgo Networks