Resonext uses ARM core and bus in new 5-GHz wireless LAN chip-set series

Resonext uses ARM core and bus in new 5-GHz wireless LAN chip-set series
By Semiconductor Business News
October 29, 2001 (12:20 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011029S0039

SAN JOSE -- Resonext Communications Inc. here today announced it has licensed the ARM922T RISC processor core from ARM Ltd. for use in a new chip-set series targeted at 5-GHz wireless local area networks.

The chip-set series, called the RN5200, consists of two families of devices aimed at WLAN clients systems and access point (AP) platforms, Resonext said. Both series of chip sets incorporate the company's True Zero-IF 5-GHz CMOS radio, media access control (MAC), access point-on-a-chip (APoC), and Resonext's AccuChannel equalization technology. The chip sets are scheduled to be available as engineering samples in the first quarter of 2002 with volume production slated in the middle of next year.

Resonext said it has also licensed the ARM AMBA on-chip interconnect bus from U.K.-based ARM to attach building-block function inside the RN5200 client and access point chips. Terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed today.

"The ARM 922T core used in our MAC and access point processing enables us to maximize our product flexibility, differentiation and compatibility with extensive WLAN firmware base," said Marc Mertsching, vice president of modem and software engineering at Resonext.

Both the RN5200 client and AP solutions consist of two chips -- an integrated radio frequency (RF) chip and a baseband/MAC integrated circuit. The ICs are fabricated in 0.18-micron CMOS technology. Resonext said the client and AP chip sets are fully 802.11a compliant and support the 5.15-to-5.35GHz UNII bands and up to 54-megabit-per-second data rate.

The RN5200R single-chip RF transceiver for both client and AP configurations is housed in a 64-pin MLF package. The RN5200C client baseband/MAC is in a 288-pin BGA package, while the RN5200P AP single-chip baseband/MAC is housed in a 340-pin BGA package. The RN5200 client chip set is priced at $35 each in quantities of 100,000, while the AP solution will sell for $45. Evaluation kits for the chip sets will be made available to selected system manufacturers in the fourth quarter of this year.