Intelligent Network Interface Card (iNIC) SoC Supports WiFi 802.11n - Ralink RT2880

Ralink, a Taiwanese company, has launched the Ralink's RT2880 Intelligent Network Interface Card (iNIC) SoC. The new iNIC SoC is a combination of Ralink's MIMObility draft 2.0 802.11n technology and MIPS processor. Target application of this new network interface includes broadband platforms, ethernet to Wi-Fi bridges, access points/router and dual band concurrent routers.

Because of lack the processor (CPU) power, many currently available wireless routers and cable/DSL modems is not capable to support 802.11n's high throughput capabilities. RT2880 overcome this problem, by featuring iNIC architecture that connects to a host processor's PCI/Ethernet interface and handles all of the 802.11n processing.

The RT2880 is a SoC that integrates Ralink's 300 Mbps 2T3R (two transmit, 3 receive) Baseband and Media Access Control (MAC) chips with a MIPS4K CPU. The RT2880 supports the latest 802.11i security features including Wi-Fi Protected Setup, 802.11e quality of service (QoS) features including WMM and WMM-PS for prioritization of voice video and data. It also supports both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands when used with Ralink's transceivers RT2850 and RT2820, respectively.

The RT2880 iNIC accelerates time to market by providing existing wireless LAN platforms an easy upgrade path to 802.11n. In addition, The RT2880 can be used as a standalone Wi-Fi Router, Access Point, Ethernet Bridge by adding SDRAM, Flash, and a 10/100 Gigabit Ethernet PHY or switch.

The chipset is fully backward compatible with the existing industry wireless standards such as 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g. The new chipset is currently available with an 802.11n "iNIC" miniPCI evaluation board to add to legacy platforms, or in a stand alone AP/Router reference design.

More info: Ralink Intelligent Network Interface Card (iNIC) SoC