Marvell Avastar 88W8787 Achieves the First Dual-band 802.11n Radio 'Wi-Fi Direct' Certification

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL), a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today announced its Avastar™ 88W8787 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & FM single chip solution was certified Wi-Fi Direct™ compliant by the Wi-Fi Alliance,  the first dual-band 802.11n radio certified for low-power embedded mobile applications, such as smartphones, tablets and other portable devices. The Avastar 88W8787 is the first in the Avastar family to be Wi-Fi Direct certified, with others soon to follow.

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"I believe today's consumers now expect and demand high-performance, robust, secure and seamless connectivity between all their connected devices no matter where they go. Marvell continues to focus intensively on developing new and innovative wireless technologies for low-power embedded mobile applications, so that consumers are free to easily connect, share, play or watch live content anytime and anywhere," said Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-Founder. "Marvell has a proven track record as the world leader in Wi-Fi for enterprise and consumer applications and the Wi-Fi Direct certification fits in nicely with our vision of seamless communications across all devices, from the handheld to the wall mounted. We are proud to be enabling this wireless ecosystem by supporting the Wi-Fi Direct standard in our Avastar family and by working with device manufacturers to help them deliver a new generation of mobile devices to consumers worldwide."

Key features of Marvell's Avastar 88W8787 includes: support up to 150Mbps bit rate over the air with 40 MHz channels in both bands, best-in-class leakage current with up to 4x lower than existing solutions and 802.11h Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) for detecting radar pulses when operating in the 5 GHz range.

As a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Marvell helped develop the Wi-Fi Direct specification and designed the Avastar 88W8787 to fully leverage the technology's powerful capabilities. Wi-Fi Direct eliminates the need for a traditional hot spot in many situations, establishing instead a high-performance, direct peer-to-peer network, capable of supporting consumers in all the ways they use handheld devices, including real-time content sharing and gaming, directly printing from handhelds, distributing video from a handheld to a big screen TV, and much more. Data transmissions are protected by WPA2™-certified security protocols, featuring encryption algorithms considered fully secure.

"We congratulate Marvell on having achieved the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct designation for the Avastar 88W8787," said Edgar Figueroa, Wi-Fi Alliance CEO. "Wi-Fi Direct is a compelling new solution, and Marvell has demonstrated its commitment to a good user experience with advanced Wi-Fi solutions by having its products certified."

Building on its own proprietary technology, Marvell has already delivered mobile hotspot capabilities in several generations of Wi-Fi products, including smartphones, 3G/4G Wi-Fi data cards, printers, gaming consoles, digital still and video cameras and automobiles.  Now, with the deployment of its Wi-Fi Direct implementation the company will extend its wireless solutions in an easy to use and standards-based way, taking the experience to an even greater number of consumers.

Marvell is shipping Wi-Fi Direct certified Avastar 88W8787 evaluation kits today and offers the technology as a software upgrade on existing and future Wi-Fi products.

About Marvell

Marvell is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions.  Marvell's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the term "Marvell" refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit Marvell.com.

Marvell and the M logo are registered trademarks of Marvell and/or its affiliates.  Avastar is trademark of Marvell and/or its affiliates. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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