Atheros
3748675
222322870
2008-06-28T18:44:38Z
DStoykov
538599
{{Infobox Company
| company_name = Atheros Communications
| company_logo = [[Image:Atheros.png]]
| company_type = [[Public company|Public]] ({{nasdaq|ATHR}})
| foundation = May 1998
| location = [[Santa Clara, California]]
| key_people = Teresa H. Meng, founder and director <br/> Craig H. Barratt, President and CEO
| industry = [[Semiconductor]]s
| products = [[Wireless LAN]]
| revenue =
| num_employees = 340 (October 2005)
| homepage = [http://www.atheros.com www.atheros.com]
}}
'''Atheros Communications''' ({{nasdaq|ATHR}}) is a developer of [[semiconductor]]s for [[wireless]] communications. Founded in 1998 by experts in [[signal processing]] from [[Stanford University]], the [[University of California, Berkeley]] and the private industry, it became a [[public company]] in 2004. The current President and [[Chief Executive Officer|CEO]] of the company is Craig H. Barratt.
Atheros chipsets for the [[IEEE 802.11]] standard of wireless networking are used by over 30 different wireless device manufacturers, including [[Netgear]], [[D-Link]] and [[Linksys]].<ref>[http://www.super-g.com/superproducts.html Atheros Wireless LAN, 2.4/5-GHz, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11b/g, Radio-on-a-Chip, WLAN, Networking<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
In late 2007, Atheros acquired u-Nav, a [[Global Positioning System|GPS]] chipmaker, indicating that the company was interested in getting into the GPS market.<ref>[http://wireless.itworld.com/4260/atheros-to-acquire-gps-chip-maker-u-nav-071214/page_1.html wireless.itworld.com - Atheros to acquire GPS chip maker u-Nav<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
== Free software support ==
{{Update}}
In the [[free software community]], Atheros is known for not releasing appropriate documentation that would allow [[free software]] developers to write open-source drivers to support their wireless devices without reverse-engineering,<ref>[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/03/01/1109546842718.html OpenBSD to support more wireless chipsets - Breaking - http://www.theage.com.au/technology/<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> thus [[Open_source|OSS]] support for Atheros hardware is rather limited. Although documentation is not available, there are still some completely free open-source drivers written via reverse-engineering techniques, for example, Reyk Floeter of the [[OpenBSD]] project has reversed-engineered the [[Hardware abstraction layer|HAL]]-module of the driver, and provided a completely free driver to Atheros devices.
Atheros is often featured in OpenBSD's themed songs that relate to the ongoing efforts of freeing non-free devices. <ref>[http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#37 OpenBSD release song lyrics<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
On [[23 July]][[2003]], Atheros announced the release of an open-source driver for their 802.11b/g and 802.11a/b/g chipsets for [[Linux]] and [[FreeBSD]].<ref>[http://www.atheros.com/news/linux.html Atheros Communications, Atheros, Wireless, WLAN, Wireless LAN, 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz, 2.4/5-GHz, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11, Radio-on-Chip, Networking, Mobile, Semiconductor, system solutions<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
As of September 2007, Atheros is working on providing a Linux driver for [[IEEE 802.11|802.11n]] and expects to release it soon under the [[GNU General Public License|GPL]].{{Fact|date=November 2007}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
* [http://www.atheros.com Atheros homepage]
* [http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility Atheros support in Linux]
* [http://www.atheros.com/news/linux.html Atheros Linux and FreeBSD binary-only HAL drivers released], Atheros press release, [[23 July]] [[2003]]
[[Category:Companies established in 1998]]
[[Category:Electronics companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Companies based in Silicon Valley]]
[[Category:Fabless semiconductor companies]]