Aiming to be a player in the emerging wireless multimedia networking for the home entertainment market, Yakum, Israel-based start-up Metalink unveiled its first single-chip radio frequency (RF) device to support multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology used in the IEEE 802.11n standard being developed for next-generation Wi-Fi. According to Metalink, the MtW8150 is the first in 802.11n product family laying the groundwork for the emerging wireless multimedia networking to handle high-bandwidth digital entertainment content.

“Metalink's goal is to help move IEEE 802.11n beyond fast data networking to fulfill its promise as a video and multimedia delivery technology for wireless home entertainment,” said Tzvika Shukhman, chairman and chief executive officer at Metalink. “In addition to offering our new, highly integrated RF device as a stand-alone product for use with other MIMO or smart-antenna baseband chips, we also will be including it as part of a complete IEEE 802.11n MIMO chipset that we plan to unveil soon. We are confident that our WLAN-Plus product line is a crucial building block for the digital home networks.”

According to ABI Research, more than 150 million Wi-Fi ICs will be embedded into consumer electronics products by 2007, many of those driven by the need to deliver multimedia content.

Metalink's RF chip integrates two transmit and receive RF chains on one real MIMO chip (2 × 2 MIMO). The MtW8150 device features two complete and independent transmit and receive RF chains on a single cost-effective device, and is designed to be compliant with any IEEE 802.11n standard that will be ratified. Operating in the 4.9 GHz to 5.9 GHz worldband frequency range, it supports the pre-standard IEEE 802.11n specification and also can operate on the 20 MHz frequency channel to maintain legacy interoperability.

For demanding HDTV distribution, the MtW8150 can be used in an asymmetric topology with more antennas on the service side than the client side, enabling designers to apply advanced techniques like beam forming to increase throughput and quality of service (QoS) while reducing overall equipment costs. To further increase throughput, multiple MtW8150 devices can be cascaded, using their integrated local oscillators (LOs) combined with LO sharing to eliminate the need for any external components. Throughput also can be improved using the device's 40 MHz channel-bonding capability. Sampling now, the MtW8150 is slated to go into production in the third quarter.

For more information, visit www.metalinkbb.com