Atheros brings 802.11n to cellphones with AR6003, is one antenna short of a pair
By Tim Stevens 
posted Nov 3rd 2009 7:51AM
posted Nov 3rd 2009 7:51AM
802.11n is a wonderful thing, providing 144Mbps bandwidth and reliable connections over impressive distances, but part of that wonder comes thanks to a reliance on dual antennas. Twice the antennas means twice the streams (MIMO, ya dig?), but Atheros has decided to ditch one for its new mobile-friendly AR6003 chip. It's a power-saving move called "one-stream 11n," and while we've seen it before that doesn't mean we have to like it. Atheros's solution provides a maximum throughput of 85Mbps, which is frankly nothing to shake a stick at, and despite that will suck down 20 percent less power than its earlier AR6002 802.11a/b/g chip. In other words, we'll rock it in our celly -- begrudgingly.
assuming you have a wireless n router to connect it to; I wonder if the power saving features work with g routers
They won't. It saves power using N because it takes less time to send the data.
In my experience, N chipsets connect to b/g better than older b/g only models. This may have to do more with simply being a newer chipset, as those things are always improved. Kind of like how old CD players couldn't read everyone's kinds of CDs, but DVD models can read everyones cheapo brand of CD-R/RW/XA etc.
Yay...now all we need are cellphones able to actually USE an 85Mbps input stream.
and a internet connection that supports that data transfer, i only have a max of 4.6Mbit/s.
Exactly, even 85Mbps seems overkill for today's hardware, smartphones will have hard time rendering all that data, and let along that fact that most web sites won't be uploading data to you at such high rate. The only use I can think of is streaming high quality video from a media center in a home network, but watching a HD movie on a cellphone at home seems stupid.
The iPod touch 3G also has 802.11 N, but uses a Broadcom chipset.
Congratulation...
this is good for you...
"shake a stick at"...........thats what he said
802.11n is on my smartphone checklist right now.
So that I can finally ditch 11g devices and set my wifi router to 11n-only mode.
802.11g, which let you do nothing but browsing web pages, just need to die. Seriously.
i use G to stream videos and music, it's plenty fast for me just little ol' me.
Won't be in phones till what? Mid 2010.
Cmon Android, get me some N.
Awww.... they're so cute, those little 802.11ns.
It is not the size of the chip that matters
... its what you do with the antennas
Diversity needs two antennas seperated by a few centimetres. Not easy in a tiny phone.
What does an old old wooden ship have to do with this?
Isn't atleast two antennas part of the n-standard ratification? Maybe thats why they are calling it "one-stream 11n"?
Single-stream 802.11n may or may not be part of the official spec; I just don't know. However, these mobile devices may still function in an official 802.11n ecosystem due to optional additions such as Space-Time Block Coding (STBC) and Low Density Parity Check (LDPC).
Hi,
The information in the blog is very interesting about the mobile antennas.
Using a cell phone spy, you’re holding a machine to your head that transmits electromagnetic waves directly to your brain. These waves are the main cause to establish the connection with the other number which you want to call. These are the equivalent of microwave energy, are transmitted to the brain through cell phone antennas and – depending upon how close that receptor is to your head, as much as 60% of that radiation is absorbed.