SiS unveils its first wireless chip

Taipei, March 19, 2003 (CENS)--Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), a leading supplier of core logic and graphics chipsets, unveiled its first chip for IEEE 802.11b wireless local area network (WLAN) devices on March 17.

The chip, called the SiS160, is a media access controller (MAC) that supports data transfer rates from one to 11 megabits per second.

SiS president Michael Chen described the rollout of the SiS160 as a "leap forward" demonstrating the priority that SiS places on the WLAN market.

Chen stressed that SiS has made several innovative design breakthroughs with the new WLAN chip. He also noted that the chip has been certified to conform with U.S. Federal Communications Commission regulations and supports the different channel requirements in North America, Japan and Europe.

SiS had worked closely with global testing technology leader, Agilent Technologies, to develop a testing platform that would ensure a high yield of SiS160 chips while meeting the highest possible quality and reliability standards. "With a successful pilot run in December and several key partners already at the design-in stage, volume shipments of the SiS160 are ready to start immediately," Chen noted. Agilent and many of Taiwanese networking-equipment suppliers have pledged to use the chip.

The SiS160 is designed with advanced ASIC technology, manufactured with 0.18-micron CMOS processes and packaged using a 128-pin LQFP (low-profile quad flat pack) method. The chip is designed to save power, making them well suited for use in battery-powered devices. The SiS160 has PCI, MiniPCI and Cardbus host interface support for easy integration for desktop and notebook computers.

In addition to support of both 64-bit and 128-bit data encryption using the WEP (wired equivalent privacy) algorithm, a part of the original IEEE 802.11 standard, the SiS160 driver supports the latest 802.1x security standards, including TKIP (temporal key integrity protocol) and WPA (Wi-Fi protected access).

Other Taiwanese chip designers, including Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd., VIA Technologies Inc., Ali Corp. and Admtek Inc., have also begun offering 802.11b WLAN chips.