Redpine Signals Introduces World's Lowest Power Licensable 802.11b/g WLAN Platform

Setting the Standard in WLAN Power and Size

Santa Clara, CA (August 23, 2005) -  Redpine Signals, Inc., a leading wireless platform licensing  and semiconductor solutions supplier for wireless communication standards, today introduced Pine1-LP Wireless LAN (WLAN) Platform. Pine1-LP is the world’s lowest power licensable 802.11b/g platform – drawing less that 170mA [377mW] for the complete SDIO/SPI based WLAN reference design during a 54Mbps FTP download; VoIP calls draws only 12.5mA [35.6mW].

 Building on its successful track record on Pine1, the Redpine’s Pine1-LP represents the second generation leading-edge WLAN architecture, and a significant innovation in embedded software development by Redpine.  With its combined baseband (BBP), media access controller (MAC) core size of less than 6 mm2 (130nm foundry process), and industry leading low power profile, Pine1-LP is ideally suited for integration into low power, cost sensitive applications such as, single and dual-mode mobile handsets, PDAs, digital cameras, MP3 players, gaming and printing platforms.

 " Extensive use of low power design techniques at the architecture, physical and system levels enables fine grain control of power in the various portions of the WLAN system including RF transceiver, power amplifier, and DAC/ADCs using patent pending algorithms in the BBP/MAC and associated software,” said Balraj Singh, Vice President of Marketing, Redpine Signals.  “In addition the extremely small footprint of the Pine1-LP BBP/MAC and comprehensive set of SoC integration deliverables now enables integration of a WLAN interface into cost and power sensitive SoCs.”

 The Pine1-LP WLAN Platform provides all the features essential for supporting WLAN integration into smart handheld devices including  Bluetooth coexistence, SDIO and SPI host interfaces, PMIC support, minimal requirement on host MIPS and interrupt latency, multiple frequency oscillator support, and drivers for popular operating systems such as Windows CE.

About Pine1-LP

The Pine1-LP Low Power 802.11b/g platform from Redpine Signals provides a complete standards compliant solution for low power mobile applications.  The Pine1-LP platform is an end-to-end IEEE 802.11b/g reference design which includes a baseband (BBP), media access controller (MAC), Analog Front End (AFE), an 802.11b/g RF transceiver and Power Amplifiers (PA), as well as SDIO and SPI host interfaces.  The SDIO interface is specifically designed to support full 54Mbps 802.11g data rates. The Pine1-LP MAC which supports the new 802.11i (security) and 802.11e (QoS) standards is based on a unique programmable packet engine which off-loads all WLAN packet processing and TCP checksum calculations from the host resulting in lower power and increased system performance.  The Pine1-LP platform has support for Bluetooth co-existence in the 2.4GHz band with popular Bluetooth chips. In addition, the Pine1-LP platform includes an extensive suite of firmware and driver support for Linux, Windows CE 5.0 and other popular operating systems.

About Redpine Signals

Redpine Signals is a leading wireless platform licensing and 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 IEEE 802.15.3 (UWB).  Redpine Signals is headquartered in Santa Clara, 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.