Marvell introduced and announced its latest wireless area network system-on-chip solution, the Marvell Avastar 88W8864. The new chip is also the industry's first 802.11ac 4x4 solution that should improve the throughput of enterprise and retail access points.
Earlier this year, Marvell also introduced industry's first 802.11ac 2x2 combination radio chip, the Avastar 88W8897, which paired near field communications (NFC) and Bluetooth 4.0 with multiple input output (MIMO).
The new Marvell Avastar 88W8864 SoC significantly increases the bandwidth available over the Wi-Fi link as well as the network capacity for densely populated environments while extending wireless capabilities to a variety of new uses cases such as real-time video streaming and wireless back-up. By combining the advanced 4x4 MIMO solution with Marvell's beamforming technology and the new 802.11ac support that delivers up to 1.3Gbps of throughput, the new Marvell Avastar 88W8864 SoC will deliver high-quality, low latency, artifact-free video content across service provider gateways and set-top boxes, according to Marvell.
The new Marvell Avastar 88W8864 802.11ac 4x4 chip will be integrated into a broad range of Marvell's video and network platforms. [Damn, I thought it had something to do with locked diffs and winches. Ed]