Ellipsis Digital Systems today announced a new family of broadband bridge products designed to connect DSL and cable modems to wireless networks. The first product they’re introducing is called the E-2000, and it combines both 802.11a and 802.11b support in one design. You’ll not see Ellipsis-branded products on store shelves in the future, by the way: Ellipsis makes application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips that are incorporated into other company’s offerings.
802.11b is the same wireless networking standard Apple supports in its AirPort products, and that various other companies support using products that are Wi-Fi certified. While 802.11a is a faster solution that uses the 5GHz radio band instead of the 2.4GHz band used by 802.11b, 802.11b has gained the favor of many major players in the industry who are supporting the wireless networking standard in various products aimed at schools, businesses and home users.
Ellipsis explained that the E-2000 utilizes a proprietary “die-level sharing” technology that enables the company to reduce the cost of manufacturing silicon by as much as 40 percent, compared with products that use separate chipsets. Ellipsis’ technologies also enhance receiver sensitivity by more than 1.5dB and reduce power consumption by more than 30 percent.
Ellipsis said that the E-2000 isn’t expected to ship until mid-2002. Additional E-Bridge products will be releases shortly thereafter.
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