Faster wireless LAN chips due within weeks

Atheros Communications hopes to be the first into the shops...

Atheros Communications expects to ship equipment supporting a new faster version of the popular 802.11 wireless connection standard. The 802.11a standard offers a faster connection (54Mbps) than existing 802.11b technology, which only offers 11Mbps. Atheros plans to boost that figure to 100Mbps using proprietary technologies, according to the Computerwire news service. Atheros has already shipped a thousand or so samples to companies that will eventually sell devices containing the chips.