Agere, Infineon team up for 802.11 wireless effort

Allentown, Pa. -- Agere Systems Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG have formed an alliance to co-develop high-performance chips based on the 802.11 standard in order to offer next-generation wireless networking solutions.

The collaboration between Agere and Infineon includes intellectual property licensing and a mutual supply agreement. Both companies will independently market next-generation wireless LAN products.

They hope to be players in the next genertion of megabit/second cell phones and wireless data and personal computing iappliances as well as in the home networking market, where 802.11 has emerged as a stong alternative to wired protocols such as HomeRF, HomePNA and others.

According to IDC, an industry analyst firm, the total market for wireless LAN chips is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 30 percent from $331 million in 2001 to $1.2 billion by 2006. Current applications are supported by today's 11Mbit/s 802.11b technology.

However, as new services emerge and the number of end-users grows, the bandwidth required in enterprise networks will rise significantly. The market will increasingly migrate to multimode solutions, which combine 802.11a, b, and g technologies, while operating in both the 2.4 and 5.2 GHz frequencies. Multimode solutions are projected to represent as much as 57 percent of the total wireless LAN chip market by 2006, according to IDC.

Under the agreement, Agere and Infineon will co-develop, supply and support reference designs that include all of the components required by network equipment, consumer electronics and PC manufacturers to offer end products with wireless networking capabilities.

Agere will provide its wireless LAN system architecture, multimode media access controller (MAC) and driver software to the joint solution, while Infineon will contribute its advanced dual-band radio technology and wide-band power amplifier chips.

Agere and Infineon will co-develop the physical layer (PHY) component for the reference designs, combining intellectual property and experience from each company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Infineon and Agere will cross-license patents and technology that will be jointly used. Agere and Infineon will offer to the market not only a highly competitive solution but also security and flexibility in sourcing. The two companies will begin sampling to customers by second quarter 2003.

Go to www.agere.com or www.infineon.com for more information on this story.

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