Marvell shows off 802.11ac 4x4 wireless chip for enterprise and consumer applications

Marvell, a fabless semiconductor company, makes a plethora of wireless chipsets and other integrated electronics. Today, they are touting that they have the industry's first 802.11ac 4x4 wireless solution. Marvell says that it is "built to improve the throughput of enterprise and retail access points (APs) and the robustness of wireless video distribution."

"I believe that with Marvell's new breakthrough 802.11ac 4x4 Wi-Fi solution, we are positioned to change the landscape for enterprise-class network infrastructure and carrier grade video applications, further empowering the entire spectrum of always-on devices. The new era of the digital lifestyle requires superior wireless connectivity which serves as a critical pillar for delivering live content across all screen sizes and 'Smart Furnishings' for connected consumers," said Weili Dai, Co-Founder of Marvell. "I am very proud to see our dedicated team of engineers continue to build ground-breaking wireless technologies that support the latest industry standards, significantly improving network capacity, performance and reliability for Wi-Fi devices accessing the cloud infrastructure. Working with the industry's largest and most innovative global carriers and OEMs over the last decade, Marvell has established a successful track record of delivering world class wireless solutions for enterprise, consumer and mobile applications."

The new chipset, the 88W8864 SoC comes with the latest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, which is the fastest wireless so far. It provides throughput up to 1.3Gbps. Beamforming is also supported by the 88W8864, which allows a stronger link to be formed by directing the beam in the direction of the device. The highlights are as follows:

• Complete 4x4 MIMO dual-band 802.11ac solution
• 1.3Gbps WLAN PHY rate
• Channel bandwidth up to 80MHz
• 256 QAM modulation scheme
• Market proven implicit and explicit Transmit Beamforming technology
• Low Density Parity Check (LDPC)
• Powerful Wi-Fi offload engine
• Marvell Spectrum Management
• Multi-stream, low PER and latency HD video
• Integrated Wi-Fi position engine
• Marvell Platform Advantage