Wireless sol'n supports 802.11ac

Quantenna Communications Inc. has introduced its QAC2300 chipset, which the company claims to be the world's first gigabit-speed IEEE 802.11ac wireless local-area networking (WLAN) solution.

The QAC2300 two-chip solution includes a new 4x4 MIMO digital baseband chip that supports the latest 802.11ac specifications. It also integrates Quantenna's shipping RF chip, which already supports 802.11ac. Quantenna has used the 4x4 WiFi MIMO technology to deliver the 802.11ac wireless LAN solution. The technology is optimized for a variety of retail consumer electronics products including wireless routers, access points, and high-end consumer electronics devices.

The company hopes that by introducing not just the first 802.11ac technology, but also enabling it with 4x4 MIMO, it would extend its lead over other WiFi competitors who have yet to ship 4x4 MIMO technology.

"The QAC2300 for retail applications complements our existing QHS71x product line, which is optimized for service providers," said Sam Heidari, chief executive officer for Quantenna. "This new 802.11ac solution is an industry first that reinforces our leadership role in high-throughput wireless technology, and extends it into new retail and consumer electronics market segments."

Quantenna's QAC2300-RDK reference design was developed to support the current draft of the IEEE 802.11ac standard and includes schematics, layout, and design guidelines. Building on Quantenna's existing RF front-end chip that already supports 802.11ac, it enables rapid time to market with 2Gbit/s dual-band, dual-concurrent operation (5GHz 802.11ac plus 2.4GHz 802.11n) using PCI-e or dual RGMII interfaces.

The QAC2300-RDK reference design for retail applications is available now to early access customers.