wONE way to cut wireless networking costs

Texas Instruments (TI) has unveiled a universal router software technology that enables simultaneous 802.11g and 802.11a operation from a single chipset.

The company claimed that the software, dubbed wONE, will slash the cost of dual-band wireless networking products.

"Until now, most dual-band routers and access points [APs] were too expensive for mass consumer adoption since they required two chipsets in order to maintain simultaneous operation," the company said.

The wONE software is being touted as a means for networking equipment manufacturers to create the first generation of multiband 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11b wireless kit for the consumer market.

"TI's new wONE solution is extremely compelling because it makes 802.11a an affordable option for the consumer market," said Mike Wolf, principal consumer connectivity analyst at In-Stat/MDR, in a statement.

"Consumers are beginning to extend their use of wireless beyond broadband sharing to richer media networking applications, and technologies like wONE will help to make this transition by allowing users to connect to any network regardless of what mode their device uses."

wONE is part of TI's AP design kit to help manufacturers design and develop new wireless local area network products from the company's 802.11 platforms.

It is currently available as part of TI's AP design kit 5.1. For full details see www.ti.com/wone.