Trevor, re: Fusion / S4 + Atheros WCN ……………………………………………….
My understanding was that it was all available within one physical chip. Radios are an analog implementation and there integration into a single chip is likely a matter of packaging.
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Hopefully this will help refresh your memory banks??
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May 31, 2011
Qualcomm Atheros Announces Highly Integrated Connectivity Solution for Superior Performance in Smartphones and Tablets
WCN3660 Combo Chip Brings Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM Radio Connectivity to Qualcomm’s 28nm Snapdragon Family of Mobile Processors
TAIPEI, Taiwan and SAN JOSE, Calif. – May 31, 2011 — Qualcomm Atheros Inc., the networking and connectivity subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), today announced it has begun sampling its new WCN3660 combo chip, which is designed to bring expanded connectivity options to the Qualcomm Snapdragon™ family of mobile processors. Optimized for use in smartphone and tablet devices, the WCN3660 supports an extensive suite of advanced Wi-Fi connectivity options with multiple Wi-Fi standards. The WCN3660 chip also supports Bluetooth 3.0 and Bluetooth 4.0 and the worldwide FM radio frequency band. Designed to interface with Qualcomm’s 28nm Snapdragon mobile processors, the new WCN3660 is a highly integrated solution, enabling customers to provide enhanced connectivity in mobile devices, while reducing the board area required for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® and FM radio support by up to 50 percent over existing solutions.
“With the launch of the WCN3660, Qualcomm Atheros is demonstrating its commitment to provide an extensive connectivity portfolio of discrete, combo and integrated platform solutions to our smartphone and tablet customers,” said Amir Faintuch, senior vice president and general manager, consumer business unit, Qualcomm Atheros. “Qualcomm Atheros is pleased to help enable a new generation of mobile devices that connect users to the growing array of must-have social, media and cloud applications.”
The WCN3660 chip features single-stream, 802.11n with dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) operation to enhance mobile wireless multimedia applications. The chip also supports mobile hotspot functionality for up to 14 clients with industry standards-based Wi-Fi Direct™ for peer-to-peer wireless connections without an access point present. The WCN3660 also will support the emerging Wi-Fi Display™ standard for streaming video directly from a smartphone or tablet to a Wi-Fi-enabled display or television.
The WCN3660 chip has an integrated dual-band power amplifier, transmit antenna switch and on-chip matching circuit, which allows the chip to meet the most stringent carrier requirements while minimizing solution size and power consumption. Bluetooth standards supported by the WCN3660 chip include high-speed Bluetooth 3.0 for audio streaming and device connectivity, and low-power Bluetooth 4.0, which is designed to work with low-power sensors, health monitoring devices and other low data-rate applications. The FM radio capabilities of the WCN3660 include support for both FM receiver and transceiver functionality; worldwide FM band support (76 to 108 MHz); RDS support for Europe and RBDS support for the U.S.; autonomous search, seek and manual tuning; and active noise cancellation.
The WCN3660 chip is compatible and directly interfaces with Snapdragon devices manufactured in the 28nm process, including the MSM8960™, MSM8270™, MSM8x30™ and APQ8064™. It uses a fully calibrated, wafer-level package smaller than 15mm-squared for direct mounting to a PCB for ease of design and implementation. The WCN3660’s small size and low power consumption in both active and standby modes help provide excellent battery life in mobile devices. To minimize interference and provide high LTE data throughput and optimal audio quality, the WCN3660 interfaces directly with the centralized coexistence manager in the Snapdragon device to provide real-time, intelligent packet arbitration and scheduling, providing an LTE/ISM coexistence solution that is optimized beyond the capabilities of standard filtering approaches.
“Qualcomm Atheros is utilizing its systems expertise to deliver a highly innovative and integrated architecture for connectivity solutions in smartphones and tablets,” said David Favreau, vice president of product management, Qualcomm Atheros. “The new WCN3660 combo chip with the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile processors provides a powerful solution for always-connected mobile devices that support WAN, WLAN and WPAN connections.”
The WCN3660 is optimized to work with a broad range of mobile operating systems including Android, next-generation Windows and Windows Phone, Palm® WebOS™ and QNX®. Samples of the WCN3660 chip are available now, with a commercial release scheduled for late 2011.
qca.qualcomm.com 
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Qualcomm Atheros Launches 802.11ac WiFi Ecosystem 0
by Roy Alugbue
tagged 802.11ac, MWC 2012, qualcomm, qualcomm atheros, Snapdragon S4, wcn3680, wifi
talkandroid.com
Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon S4 processor already makes our mouths water, but there’s yet another reason why we can’t wait to get our hands on an S4-based device. The current WiFi standard is about to get just a smidge faster. Qualcomm Atheros has officially launched the 802.11ac WiFi ecosystem by unveiling the WCN3680 module, which attaches directly to the Snapdragon S4 chip. The WCN3680 module will feature high data transfer while having fairly low power consumption– we can expect to see data transfer speeds of up to 433Mbps. Yeah, this puppy looks like it’s ready to stream high quality content.
Now that Qualcomm Atheros has placed it’s new wireless standard into the limelight, we expect to see the technology in action and perhaps a device or two featuring the technology at MWC next week. Hit the break to see the full press release.
Qualcomm Atheros Launches 802.11ac Product Ecosystem to Provide
End-to-End, Gigabit-Capable Wi-Fi Performance
? Employs Mobile Platform to Propagate Clients,
Accelerate Adoption of New-Generation Wi-Fi ?
SAN JOSE, C alif. ? February 23, 2012 ? Qualcomm Atheros Inc., the networking and connectivity subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), announced today the launch of its 802.11ac Wi-Fi® ecosystem. With the growing number of devices and bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications placing greater demands on wireless networks, 802.11ac?the newest chapter in the Wi-Fi technology evolution?expands performance and coverage to enable HD video-grade connectivity across increasingly crowded networks. Qualcomm’s portfolio of 802.11ac products target mobile, home and office networking, including smartphones, tablets, PCs, laptops, televisions, home routers, gateways and enterprise access points. Qualcomm is introducing its multi-channel portfolio to enable end-to-end 802.11ac performance benefits to speed adoption of the new Gigabit-capable Wi-Fi networking technology.
“Qualcomm Atheros is enabling a client-to-infrastructure 802.11ac ecosystem by combining its Wi-Fi expertise across virtually all segments with Qualcomm’s position in mobile channels,” said Craig Barratt, president, Qualcomm Atheros. “By enabling client devices, such as smartphones, tablets and notebooks, with easy migration from 802.11n to 802.11ac, Qualcomm Atheros is paving the way for rapid adoption of products based on the new Wi-Fi standard. This should provide for a smooth, full-scale transition to Gigabit-capable Wi-Fi networking within the next two years.”
Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ac for Mobile
A key catalyst driving the ecosystem, the WCN3680 is a mobile 1×1 802.11ac combo Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM chip that is the connectivity companion to the Qualcomm 28nm Snapdragon™ family of processors, and will be integrated with the Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 processor featuring a dual-core Krait CPU and the S4 APQ8064 processor featuring a quad-core Krait CPU. Targeted at mobile consumer electronic devices like smartphones and tablets, the WCN3680 chip has high throughput for fast data transfer and low power consumption, enabling longer battery life and superior performance for demanding applications. The Snapdragon S4 processor class supports a wide range of leading operating systems, provides data rates up to 433 Mbps, and is pin-compatible with Qualcomm Atheros’ 802.11n mobile solution, the WCN3660, to provide customers with a simple upgrade path to 802.11ac performance.
“We are thrilled to be the industry’s first company with a mobile 802.11ac combo chip. The WCN3680 is an important development for the wireless industry,” said Barratt. “Qualcomm Atheros is improving the way new Wi-Fi technologies are propagated and expanding on the strength of Qualcomm’s mobile footprint to enable 802.11ac more quickly for everyone.”
Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ac for Computing
To address the broad and growing array of connectivity needs for computing, Qualcomm is offering a rich family of solutions, including 1-, 2- and 3-stream 802.11ac solutions that can achieve up to 1.3 Gbps wireless data rates:
· WCN3680 1-stream 802.11ac with integrated Bluetooth and FM paired with the Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 offers the benefits of high-performance WAN and LAN connectivity for multimedia and gaming on smartphones, tablets and PCs;
· WCN3680 paired with the Snapdragon S4 APQ8064 for non-WAN, advanced multimedia and gaming on tablets and PCs;
· Standalone QCA9860 (3-stream) and QCA9862 (2-stream) 802.11ac/a/b/g/n and Bluetooth combo chips support up to 1.3 Gbps PHY rates and feature a system-on-chip architecture to optimize CPU utilization for support of three times faster transfer rates and extended battery life versus legacy Wi-Fi.
The Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ac chips for computing are highly integrated to enable the smallest, thinnest notebooks with support for leading operating systems. The chips also support Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi Display for full peer-to-peer functionality.
Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ac for Consumer Electronics
The Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ac solution ecosystem provides consumer electronics customers with 1-, 2- and 3-stream dual-band 802.11ac performance options that can achieve up to 1.3 Gbps wireless data rates. For utilization in televisions, gaming systems and streaming media devices, the Qualcomm Atheros chips for consumer electronics optimize video delivery within the evolving home network. The chips can be paired with the Qualcomm Snapdragon media processor to provide enhanced smart television performance options; standalone options can be paired with optional television system-on-chip/media processors. The high level of integration allows for thin designs, including 4mm OLED panels. The 802.11ac chips for consumer electronics include:
QCA9860, 3-stream dual-band 802.11ac/a/b/g/n with Bluetooth 4.0/LE
QCA9862, 2-stream dual-band 802.11ac/a/b/g/n with Bluetooth 4.0/LE
Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ac for Home and Enterprise Networking
To complete its end-to-end Gigabit wireless ecosystem, Qualcomm Atheros is also launching 2- and 3-stream, dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi to PCIe single-chip radios for home and enterprise network access equipment. These new chips achieve up to 1.3 Gbps wireless data rates and target next-generation dual-band, dual-concurrent (DBDC) wireless access points, routers and gateways. A new, highly efficient architecture reduces overall system cost, processing requirements and power consumption, while nearly tripling wireless performance, to enable broad adoption. A high level of integration reduces external components compared to the previous generation of 3×3 802.11n solutions, to enhance reliability and simplify end product design and manufacturing. The Qualcomm Atheros solutions for retail, carrier and enterprise networking customers include:
QCA9880 3×3 and QCA9882 2×2 chips for 802.11ac/a/b/g/n home networking
QCA9890 3×3 and QCA9892 2×2 chips for 802.11ac/a/b/g/n enterprise networking, with enhanced in-building location and spectral sensing capabilities
Qualcomm Atheros is sampling its 802.11ac chips to customers in the second quarter of 2012 and will demonstrate the WCN3680 capabilities at Mobile World Congress in Qualcomm’s exhibit, Booth #8B53, Hall 8, February 27 to March 1 in Barcelona.
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