Single-chip, 2.4/5 GHz, 2-stream 802.11a/b/g/n and BT 4.0 + HS SoC Solution with SST Technology.
Technology Overview
The AR9462 is a single-chip solution that combines dual-band (2.4/5 GHz), 2-stream 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 technologies for notebooks, netbooks and tablets. The highly integrated solution not only provides customers with greater design flexibility, but can actually improve the wireless experience for consumers.
The AR9462 brings Qualcomm XSPAN’s industry-leading 2x2 802.11n performance to increasingly smaller computing and CE devices. It delivers data rates of 300 Mbps and TCP throughput of more than 200 Mbps when used in 2x2 mode. It also offers a unique set of advanced 11n technologies known as Signal-Sustain Technology™ (SST), which ensures stronger wireless connections across the entire WLAN link. SST features include Low Density Parity Checking (LDPC), Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) and Maximum Likelihood Demodulation (MLD) – which together can increase rate-over-range performance by up to 100% at short range, 50% at mid-range and 25% at long range.
The AR9462 also supports the latest Bluetooth 4.0 specification, which includes both High Speed and Low-Energy operation to extend personal area connectivity to a variety of devices. It includes a Bluetooth EDR radio, a 32-bit Tensilica Xtensa CPU, USB 2.0 interface, two 1.2v voltage regulators for analog and digital circuit, auxiliary EEPROM interface, on board PLL, RAM, and on board one time programmable (OTP) ROM.
The AR9462 also delivers superior WLAN/Bluetooth coexistence to ensure the best possible wireless experience. In addition to Qualcomm’s standard Universal Wireless Cooperation™ technology, the AR9462 offers advanced algorithms developed to mitigate interference and takes advantage of the physical proximity of the WLAN and Bluetooth radios to provide maximum performance. Qualcomm offers a robust platform that streamlines the design of wireless devices. On the Bluetooth side, a standard HCI USB interface makes the AR9462 compatible with any upper layer Bluetooth stack. Qualcomm leverages the GNU/Linux BlueZ architecture as the basis of its Bluetooth host stack, which is upstream-compatible with Android and Chrome OS. Microsoft software is available for Windows 7, Vista, and XP. The chip also offers a PCIe interface for WLAN, and Qualcomm’s DirectConnect technology offers Wi-Fi Direct CERTIFIED support for P2P applications. In addition, its Fast Channel Switch (FCS) feature, the channel switching time is reduced to as little as 1 ms within band and to 2ms in between the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
AR9462 integrates several external components, including the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Low Noise Amplifiers and Power Amplifiers, switching regulators, and the WLAN and Bluetooth EEPROMs. This can dramatically reducte the RBOM of a standard PCIe Half Mini Card by up to 45%, relative to discrete 2x2 dual-band and Bluetooth combination solutions.
While offering superior performance and a high degree of integration, the AR9462 also consumes lower power in every operation mode – Active TX, Active RX, Idle Associated, and Sleep – compared to discrete solutions. This enables notebooks, tablets and other computing platforms to run much longer on a single battery charge.
