Although Intel have already put 802.11n in their road map of centrino mobile technology as well as Dell announced their new laptops will be embedded with 802.11n WiFi. The high cost for 802.11n (much higher than 802.11bg or 802.11abg solutions) keeps the OEM/ODM even the consumers away.

The cost difference in BB side can be minimized by moving to more advanced process, kind of similar to the history of 802.11b to 802.11g (although the gate count of 802.11g is still much bigger than 802.11b). Therefore, BB IC can repeat this model when migrate to 802.11n. In other words, the cost can also be close to 802.11bg or 802.11abg. However, the cost difference in RF side will be another story. It cannot be eliminated easily like that.

Airoha has two chips for 11n solutions: AL8160 and AL8260. With the lowest BOM cost, the AL8160 and AL8260 provide an outstanding benchmark in 802.11n WLAN transceiver with a combination of the most cost-effective solution, the smallest solution area and the most reliable technique.

AL8160 and AL8260, the single-band and dual-band 2T3R 11n RF IC, are also integrate multiple PAs in side the chip. Hence the advantages of BOM cost and solution area reducing will be multiplied as well.

All these cost/performance optimized 11n RF ICs provided by Airoha make customers able to come out as affordable 802.11n solution and put it in to the market with high competitive advantages.