July 16, 2008 -- Freescale Semiconductor and Arada Systems have collaborated to create a production-ready reference design offered to help speed and simplify the development of concurrent 802.11n access point devices. The design supports advanced 802.11n Wi-Fi features such as security, QoS and multiple SSID for both video and VoIP applications.
The reference design leverages Freescale's MPC8377E-RDB platform to deliver more than 330 Mbit/sec of TCP/IP throughput in the combined 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz bands, while providing enough processing power to address other enterprise-class applications.
"Partnering with Arada allows us to offer our customers a proven, production-ready solution that provides industry leading performance for 802.11n enterprise WLAN access points," says Altaf Hussain, marketing manager with Freescale Semiconductor's Networking Systems division. "This solution gives manufacturers the components they need to rapidly create compelling new products that succeed in the marketplace."
Running on the Freescale silicon is Arada's AWS software, which is a scalable architecture ideal for a range of Wi-Fi products including wireless bridges, wireless routers and triple-play gateway applications. AWS features Atheros Draft 802.11n XSPAN technology. The modular architecture of the AWS software allows customers to focus on high value tasks while relying on the robust architecture and implementation of the MAC layer functionalities.
AWS includes an extensible layer called SoftChip, which maximizes the advanced capabilities of Atheros Wi-Fi chipsets. AWS features an enterprise-class Wi-Fi software stack that supports dual-concurrent 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz designs while providing the flexibility to support various fat, fit and thin AP models.
"Arada Systems is excited to venture in this partnership with a world-class company like Freescale," comments Praveen Singh, president and chief executive officer of Arada Systems. "There is tremendous growth expected in 802.11n within emerging applications, and Freescale's architecture allows us to exploit many features including PCI- and PCI Express-ready capabilities."
Freescale's MPC8377E-RDB is a highly integrated reference design board created to speed time to market for Wi-Fi manufacturers. The platform features 256 MB unbuffered DDR2 SDRAM, 8 MB NOR flash and 32 MB NAND flash, where the platform can boot from either NOR or NAND flash. It includes both a Gigabit PHY and a 5-port Ethernet switch, as well as support for a PCI Express add in connector and a MiniPCI Express slot. The platform supports two Serial-ATA II (SATA II) connectors and has a 4-port USB hub or a 1-port USB on-the-go (OTG). These components, integrated with the MPC8377E processor, provide an application-specific platform that can help customers get a jump start on their next application design.
Along with hardware support, the MPC8377E-RDB comes with a board support package (BSP) that includes both U-boot and Linux 2.6 support.
The MPC8377E processor is based on the e300 core, built on Power Architecture technology, and has a frequency range of 400667 MHz. It supports a 32K instruction and L1 data cache. The device also supports two Gigabit Ethernet controllers, USB 2.0, PCI 2.3, 64/32-bit DDR1/2 and an integrated security engine, as well as two x1 PCI Express and two SATA II controllers.
The dual concurrent 802.11n access point reference design based on Freescale technology is available now from Arada.
On the Web:
www.aradasystems.com
www.freescale.com