Atheros Communications, Atheros, Wireless, WLAN, Wireless LAN, 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz, 2.4/5-GHz, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11, Radio-on-Chip, Networking, Mobile, Semiconductor, system solutions

Jungo and Atheros Unveil Draft 2.0 802.11n Reference Designs For High Speed Residential and Business Gateways

New Wireless Gateway Platforms Support High-Quality IPTV, Gaming, VoD and Fixed Mobile Convergence Services

SANTA CLARA, Calif., and SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 11, 2007 — Atheros Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), a leading developer of advanced wireless solutions, and Jungo Ltd., a leading provider of broadband gateway middleware, today announced a production–ready platform for residential triple-play gateways and business gateways. The new platforms consist of Atheros’ 802.11n chipsets with Jungo’s OpenRG™ (residential) and OpenSMB™ (small business) gateway software. This allows OEMs and operators to quickly bring to market wireless broadband customer premise equipment that supports the latest bandwidth-hungry and latency-sensitive consumer applications like IPTV, video-on demand, multi-room DVR, gaming, Internet radio, podcasts, VoIP and fixed mobile convergence in the home or office.

The need for Wi-Fi is rapidly increasing with wireless products making it easier to share and distribute multimedia. In order to support this consumer demand, the home wireless network must deliver the capacity required for a growing number of media applications and services. Jungo’s feature-rich, high-performance OpenRG and OpenSMB gateway software platforms integrated with Atheros’ XSPAN® 802.11n dual-band concurrent (2.4/5GHz) technology – with up to 300Mbps data rates per band – deliver sophisticated features and robust performance at range, which is essential for carriers that want to enable a true triple-play home experience.

According to a recent iSuppli report[1], two-thirds of consumers want their televisions to connect to the Internet. To support this consumer demand, home networking is migrating beyond its PC-centric beginnings to incorporate a variety of entertainment-oriented consumer electronics devices including DVD recorders, digital televisions, multi-room DVRs, digital media adapters, set-top-boxes and video game consoles. Shipments of these network-equipped devices, along with consumer PCs and home network bridges and gateways, are expected to increase to 732.9 million units by 2011, more than triple the 225.3 million that were shipped in 2006.

“By 2011, Wi-Fi will be the most common network interface in the home,” said Steve Rago, principal analyst, networking/optical communications for iSuppli. “The ease of installing 802.11n will make it the choice of many home networking consumers.”

Atheros’ XSPAN draft 2.0 802.11n chipsets are featured in a growing number of wireless products ranging from home and enterprise-class access points to laptops and highly compact, thumb-size USB adapters. To ensure the highest standard of Wi-Fi performance and interoperability with the rapidly growing number of 802.11n devices, Atheros XSPAN dual-band 802.11n AP/router, CardBus and PCI Express client reference designs are Wi-Fi® CERTIFIED. In addition, the AP/router and CardBus designs were selected for inclusion in the Wi-Fi Alliance Draft 2.0 802.11n Test Program.

“We’ve combined Jungo’s advanced gateway software with Atheros’ XSPAN 802.11n performance to satisfy consumers’ appetite for wireless multimedia applications,” said Mike Stauffer, director of marketing for the carrier business with Atheros. “Users want to move their content from the broadband entry point, the residential gateway, to any device in the home. Atheros’ wireless LAN enables the gateway to distribute the latest IPTV and video services in addition to supporting VoIP, Internet access and advanced wireless services.”

Carriers are classifying consumers into two user segments: those who want 802.11n multimedia applications and those who only require basic 802.11g data networking applications like e-mail, web surfing and file transfers.

“We see consumer demand for pervasive entertainment continuously growing, turning the gateway into the digital home media orchestrator, serving new applications and distributing content throughout the home,” said Gilad Brand, director of product marketing for Jungo. “Atheros’ 802.11n technology will help our broadband CPE customers support the growing operator demand for the rapid introduction of value-added services that create new revenue streams.”

Jungo’s OpenRG software speeds development of gateways with a modular architecture that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) for a wide range of popular services and functions, including IPTV, home media distribution, WLAN, home network security, QoS, VoIP, IP-PBX, remote file access and parental control. This robust functionality gives gateway manufacturers enhanced flexibility for rapidly developing market-specific products.

Atheros’ 802.11n solutions are optimized for whole home coverage with significantly increased bandwidth capacity – 600 Mbps physical data rates which deliver up to 400 Mbps of real user throughput[2] using the company’s XSPAN with Signal-Sustain Technology™ (SST). Only home gateways featuring XSPAN with SST offer industry-leading wireless signal reliability which results from the world’s only triple-radio MIMO design. Atheros’ innovative WLAN architecture provides a distinct competitive advantage for carriers and ISPs looking to differentiate their gateways by delivering the ultimate wireless user experience.

Jungo Ltd., an NDS Group company, is a leading provider of residential and business gateway software platforms and applications. Jungo's flagship products, OpenRG™ (residential gateway software platform) and OpenSMB (small and medium business gateway software platform) enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to bring broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) such as residential gateways, triple-play gateways, office-in-a-box gateways and firewall/VPN routers to market quickly.

Jungo also offers extensive connectivity software solutions for USB and PCI, including WinDriverTM, a driver development toolkit that enables developers to quickly create custom device drivers that can run on a multitude of operating systems without modification, and USBwareTM, a complete, high-quality embedded USB software protocol stack, allowing device manufacturers to easily incorporate standard USB OTG/Host/Device connectivity in their designs. Find out more at www.jungo.com.

About NDS
NDS Group plc (NASDAQ: NNDS), a majority owned subsidiary of News Corporation, supplies open end-to-end digital technology and services to pay-television platform operators and content providers.

Atheros Communications is a leading developer of semiconductor system solutions for wireless and other network communications products. Atheros combines its wireless and networking systems expertise with high-performance radio frequency (RF), mixed signal and digital semiconductor design skills to provide highly integrated chipsets that are manufactured on low-cost, standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes. Atheros technology is being used by a broad base of leading customers, including personal computer, networking equipment and consumer device manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.atheros.com or send email to info@atheros.com.

Atheros, the Atheros logo, XSPAN and Signal-Sustain Technology are trademarks of Atheros Communications, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements regarding the features, performance and benefits of Atheros’ and Jungo’s products and technologies; and the anticipated growth of the home networking market and increasing adoption of WLAN in consumer electronics devices, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, whether Atheros and Jungo are successful in marketing their integrated platform; technical difficulties in developing new products and technologies; the effects of competition and technological change in the WLAN and other wireless markets; whether WLAN continues to be adopted in entertainment-oriented consumer electronics devices and the growth of the market for consumer electronic devices; general economic conditions; and other risks detailed in Atheros’ Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in other reports filed with the SEC by Atheros from time to time. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Atheros disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Although we believe that the forward-looking statistical information from iSuppli is reliable, we have not independently verified this data. iSuppli generally indicates that it has obtained its information from sources believed to be reliable, but does not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information.

[1] “Home Networking: In Search of a Killer Connection” iSuppli, July 2007

[2] Performance based on a dual-band concurrent 2.4/5GHz gateway reference design.

For analyst inquires contact: Deborah Stapleton of Stapleton Communications, Inc.,
+1-650-470-0200, deb@stapleton.com