SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Atheros Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHR) , a leading developer of advanced wireless solutions, today announced the company's first cellular solution, the Atheros AR1900. In a single chip, the AR1900 implements a complete cellular transceiver, baseband, application processor, audio paths, power management, and keypad, display and USB interfaces. Through this high level of integration coupled with the addition of new industry leading features, the AR1900 enables industry-leading performance at a price that is designed to fuel further market growth. The AR1900 is the first product to leverage a platform of innovative technologies developed by Atheros over the last year, including audio, voice, low-power battery operation and novel RF architectures.
The AR1900 is the world's first single-chip solution for PHS (Personal Handyphone System), which is widely deployed in China, Japan, Taiwan and other countries. PHS, or Personal Access System (PAS) as it is known in China, is an advanced digital TDMA-TDD technology operating at 1.9 GHz providing high-quality voice, advanced data services, and long battery life. The growth of PHS in China has been driven by its favorable infrastructure cost and voice tariff structure, which is less than half that of other cellular technologies. Forward Concepts estimates that shipments of PHS/PAS handsets to the China market grew an estimated 90% in 2004 to 30.8 million units and predicts that market to grow by another 70% in 2005 to 50 million units.
"PHS has experienced remarkable growth in China since its introduction in the late 1990's and accounted for almost 20% of the cellular market in 2004 or over 68 million subscribers," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts. "We anticipate the market to continue its strong growth trend and expect low-cost, high-performance solutions, such as that offered by Atheros, to further fuel adoption."
"We have expanded our core competencies to include audio, voice and power management," said Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer of Atheros Communications. "We can now deliver solutions for broader handheld and voice markets, with PHS as the first target. These capabilities, combined with our world-class digital CMOS Radio-on-a-Chip (RoC) expertise, enable us to bring to market the most highly integrated, low power, and cost-effective wireless solutions -- within the shortest design cycle."
Atheros Communications Inc.