SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Atheros Communications, Inc. (NasdaqGS:ATHR - News), a leading developer of advanced semiconductor system solutions for wireless and wired communications, today announced it has shipped over 50 million ETHOS Gigabit and Fast Ethernet chip solutions. With best-in-class power, size and system-cost efficiencies, Atheros' Ethernet solutions have gained significant traction with the world's leading PC, and carrier, home, and small and medium business (SMB) network equipment manufacturers. Atheros also announced the addition of two new solutions to its ETHOS portfolio, the AR8131M Gigabit Ethernet and AR8132M Fast Ethernet controllers for PCs, and volume production of the AR8316 Gigabit Switch.

Since entering the Ethernet market, Atheros has designed a comprehensive line of products to meet the Ethernet requirements of its broad customer base in the wireless connectivity markets. Leveraging its industry-leading integration and attention to engineering detail, Atheros has developed a portfolio of solutions that feature superior performance, power and cost benefits. Atheros' Gigabit and Fast Ethernet solutions also now lead the industry in package size and advanced features. This product leadership has resulted in Ethernet controller design wins with six of the top ten notebook PC manufacturers and three of the top four desktop motherboard manufacturers, as well as switch designs with five of the top access point manufacturers.

ETHOS products are engineered to deliver enhanced performance and value for PC, retail networking and carrier gateway products, particularly those supporting the high-performance capacity of Atheros XSPAN®, the world's most widely adopted 802.11n technology. With the increasing adoption and performance capacity of 11n, demand for Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networking is growing. To satisfy the requirement for more bandwidth by today's consumer applications and triple-play home networks, PC, retail networking and the carrier markets have adopted GbE technology for its ability to readily address multimedia applications, making Gigabit Ethernet the de facto standard in networking systems and PC platforms worldwide.

"We are pleased to have achieved this significant 50-million chipset milestone with our ETHOS products," said George Chu, vice president and general manager of the company's Ethernet business unit. "With our growing ETHOS portfolio of products, we are continually enhancing our ability to serve the complete networking silicon needs of our broad customer base."

Atheros Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ATHR)