wONE(tm) Universal Router Technology Delivers Optimal Solution for Multimedia Home Networking

DALLAS, /Wi-Fi Technology News/- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) unveiled (Jan. 5, 2004) wONE, a universal router software technology that delivers simultaneous 802.11g and 802.11a operation from a single chipset (CPU, MAC, baseband and RF). Until now, most dual-band routers and access points (APs) were too expensive for mass consumer adoption since they required two chipsets in order to maintain simultaneous operation. With TI's wONE software, manufacturers can offer dual-band routers at an affordable price to the consumer market, making universal connectivity of 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11b in the home a reality. This all-in-one router solution offers extreme flexibility and versatility to protect the end-users' existing investments of 802.11b or 802.11g devices while technology-proofing future network applications using 802.11a.
(See http://www.ti.com/wone)

Together with TI's 802.11 silicon solutions, wONE allows manufacturers to deliver the ideal router for multimedia home networking, telecommuters, small business offices and small location hotspots. For example, in a single household, the son can watch a streaming video from an 802.11a-enabled media center or personal video recorder (PVR), while the daughter uses an 802.11b PDA to instant messenge friends, and at the same time Mom or Dad is using an 802.11g embedded mini-PCI card in a laptop to check emails over the VPN.

"TI's new wONE solution is extremely compelling because it makes 802.11a an affordable option for the consumer market," said Mike Wolf, principal consumer connectivity analyst at In-Stat/MDR. "wONE will allow consumers to take advantage of existing 802.11 investments, and provide a triple-mode, all-in-one AP/router for a slight premium over a single-mode 802.11g router. In-Stat/MDR believes that consumers are beginning to extend their use of wireless beyond broadband sharing to richer media networking applications, and technologies like wONE will help to make this transition by allowing users to connect to any network regardless of what mode their device uses, 802.11a, b, or g."

wONE router software runs on TI's TNETW1130 or TNETW1230 MAC/baseband processors with TI's TNETW5306 CPU, RC2432 802.11a/b/g transceiver and RC2432 802.11a/b/g RF Front-Ends (RFFEs). wONE is part of TI's AP design kit (APDK) to help manufacturers quickly design and develop new WLAN products from TI's 802.11 platforms. wONE is fully interoperable with all 802.11a, b, b+, g and g+ products. With the touch of a button, the web-based GUI enables consumers to configure the router to operate in 802.11b/g-only, 802.11a-only or 802.11a/b/g modes.

TI's innovative adaptive time-domain switching technology in wONE enables two separate queues to control traffic giving users concurrent and uninterrupted 802.11a, b and g access. The dynamic algorithm also adjusts bandwidth allocation across the number of 802.11a, b or g clients carrying traffic to ensure seamless, optimal performance for every user.
"The high cost of 802.11a/g routers has kept 802.11a out of the consumer market. With wONE, TI is able to give manufacturers exactly what mixed-media homes and small offices need, affordably priced routers that can support real-time applications as well as legacy 802.11b/g connectivity," said Marc Cetto, general manager of TI's Wireless Networking Business Unit

Availability
wONE router technology is currently available as part of TI's APDK 5.1.

Texas Instruments - Making Wireless
TI is the leading manufacturer of wireless semiconductors, delivering the heart of today's wireless technology and building solutions for tomorrow. TI provides a breadth of silicon and software and 15 years of wireless systems expertise that spans handsets and basestations for all communications standards, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband. >From custom to turn-key solutions, including complete chipsets and reference designs, OMAP application processors, core digital signal processor and analog technologies built on advanced semiconductor processes, TI is making wireless personal, intelligent and seamless. TI's WLAN business is part of TI's comprehensive portfolio of broadband solutions including cable modems, DSL, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateways and carrier infrastructure. (See http://www.ti.com/wlan.)


Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com.