Atmel Targets Secure Wireless Connectivity Through Solutions Designed to Be Submitted to the Wi-Fi Alliance for Wi-Fi Protected Access Certification Testing
Monday July 7, 8:01 am ET
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 7, 2003--Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML - News) announced today that it plans to offer its suite of 802.11b Media Access Controller (MAC) and MAC plus baseband controller parts, including the Dual Ethernet to Wireless LAN Bridge part, eligible for Wi-Fi Protected Access certification. A Wi-Fi Protected Access(TM) (WPA) software upgrade to existing parts will be available by July 2003. Atmel's future MAC plus baseband products will incorporate a hardware block implementing TKIP, an essential component of the Wi-Fi Protected Access security solution and of the upcoming IEEE 802.11i draft standard.
WPA, a standard promoted by Wi-Fi® Alliance, enhances the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption methodology, already offered in Atmel's 802.11b family of parts. WPA uses the 802.1x standard for port based network access control and Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), an increased level of security, by implementing random re-keying on WEP and by increasing the length of the keys from 40 to 128 bits. TKIP still uses RSA's RC4 algorithm for encryption.
"All Atmel's Wireless LAN current products are Wi-Fi Certified, either directly by Atmel or through customers using an Atmel based Reference Design. Now that the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) certification program has been officially established from the Wi-Fi Alliance, Atmel will submit its products for Wi-Fi Protected Access certification testing, ensuring the needs of Atmel's customers for Interoperable and standards compliant solutions" said Dimitris Troupis, Atmel's Specifications Engineer.
"Atmel's commitment to seeking Wi-Fi Protected Access certification for their products is an indicator that they are one of the Industry leaders. We have found that organizations that are committed to interoperable solutions, particularly for complex solutions like security, are also committed to serving the broad and evolving needs of their customers," stated Dennis Eaton, Chairman of the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Wi-Fi Alliance led an effort to bring strong and interoperable Wi-Fi security to market in the form of the Wi-Fi Protected Access certification program. Atmel is contributing to that effort by upgrading its family of products for WPA and by seeking certification for its solutions from the Wi-Fi Alliance.
About Atmel
Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, California with manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets worldwide, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using CMOS, BiCMOS, SiGe, and high-voltage BCDMOS process technologies.
About the Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a nonprofit organization formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products and to promote them as the global, wireless LAN standard across all market segments.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has instituted a test suite that defines how member products are tested to certify that they are interoperable with other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products. These tests are conducted at an independent laboratory.
Membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance is open to all companies that support the 802.11 family of standards. Wi-Fi Alliance now comprises over 190 members that offer over 700 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products from the world's leading companies.
For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org.
Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof are registered trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Wi-Fi Protected Access is a trademark and Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance. Other terms and product names in this document may be the trademarks of others.
Information:
More information on Atmel's WLAN can be retrieved at: atmel.com.
Contact:
Atmel Corporation
Clive Over, 408/451-2855
Director of Press Relations - USA and Asia
cliveover@atmel.com
Veronique Sablereau, +33 1 30 60 70 68
Corporate Communications Manager - Europe
veronique.sablereau@atmel.com
Source: Atmel Corporation |
