Marvell introduces Avastar 88W8997

     Marvell announced the Avastar 88W8997. The product is the industry's smallest and most energy-efficient MU-MIMO wireless interconnect combo chip for both enterprise and consumer markets. The 88W8997 is the industry's first 28nm 2 x 2 802.11ac Wave-2 combo chip with full support for Bluetooth 4.2 and future Bluetooth 5.0.

     Philip Poulidis, vice president, general manager of Marvell's Wireless and Internet of Things business unit, said: "Today, consumers are demanding more and more from connected devices, and expect all connected devices to be high-performance, reliable, secure and seamless at all times. Marvell has a proven track record as the leading Wi-Fi SoC provider in the vast enterprise and consumer markets. Our industry-leading 28nm 2 x 2 802.11ac Wave-2 combination SoCs significantly increase the bandwidth available over Wi-Fi links, while also significantly increasing network capacity in densely populated environments, enabling wireless capabilities for the latest applications, such as real-time video streaming, peer-to-peer gaming and media sharing applications. "

     The new industry-leading solution delivers peak data transfer rates of up to 867Mbps over reliable 2 x 2 MU-MIMO (multi-user - Multiple input, multiple output) links for flagship smartphone, tablet, mobile computing, gaming, TV and set-top box applications. The 88W8997 is one of the most integrated products on the market, integrating dual-band power amplifiers (PA), low noise amplifiers (LNAs) and switches to minimize the cost of materials (BOM) at the board level and provide a simple COB and modular design for the board market.

     The low power 28nm process technology and higher transmission path efficiency significantly reduce power consumption by up to 40% compared to existing solutions, which benefits battery-powered mobile computing products that need to provide both uninterrupted wireless performance and extended battery life. The 88W8997 supports advanced signal processing technology to further improve link stability through LDPC, STBC, and beamforming technology for both transmit and receive.

     The 88W8997 Bluetooth support not only covers the current Bluetooth 4.2, but extends to support advanced future-proof features such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Direction Finding, 2Mbps LE, and LTE Coex. These features are part of Bluetooth 5.0 Shanghai, scheduled for release in 2016. In addition, the 88W8997 supports Marvell's BLE Snooze mode, enabling ultra-low power LE interconnection.