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Marvell Launches Industry's First 802.11ac Wave-2 4x4 Processor Featuring 160 MHz Mode and MU-MIMO Extending Its Leadership in Carrier, Enterprise and Residential Wi-Fi Solutions

Marvell's 88W8964, a new member of its award-winning Avastar Wi-Fi processor family, supports 160 MHz bandwidth and Multi-User, Multiple Input and Multiple Output, and achieves 2.6 Gbps peak data rate for high speed, secure and reliable access points and smart gateways

Santa Clara, California and Las Vegas, Nevada (January 6, 2015) – Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL), a worldwide leader in providing complete silicon solutions from mobile communications to storage, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, digital entertainment and in-home content delivery and Kinoma® software enabling the “Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle,”  today announced the industry’s first 802.11ac Wave-2 4x4 processor, the Marvell® Avastar® 88W8964, featuring 160 MHz bandwidth and Multi-User, Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) support. The new industry-leading solution achieves 2.6 Gbps peak data rate for high speed, secure and reliable access points and smart gateways.

“Marvell once again demonstrates its leadership position by delivering another industry-first Wi-Fi solution. Our award-winning Wi-Fi technology marks a new era in the wireless industry and enables high performance, secure and reliable smart access points and gateways for service providers, enterprise and residential applications,” said Weili Dai, President and Co-Founder of Marvell. “I am very thankful to our dedicated team of engineers for their continuous innovation and contribution to the industry and for once again raising the technology bar.”

The widespread adoption of Wi-Fi-enabled devices requires faster, more efficient and reliable wireless that enables fast and seamless connectivity. Compared to its predecessor, 802.11n, 802.11ac offers a greater than five-fold increase in Wi-Fi throughput and three times the power efficiency when processing high-speed loads. Additionally, the Wave-2 4x4 SoC configuration is the baseline architecture for best-of-breed enterprise, retail and service provider network infrastructures for reliable delivery and distribution of 4K Ultra HD multimedia content. By combining the advanced 4x4 MU-MIMO solution with Marvell's market-proven beamforming technology and 802.11ac support, the 88W8964 enhances the company’s stronghold in routers, residential broadband gateways, set-top boxes and enterprise access points.

Key Features of Marvell’s Avastar 88W8964 SoC include:

  • 802.11ac Wave-2 with 160 MHz Bandwidth and MU-MIMO: This standard significantly increases bandwidth available over the Wi-Fi link and network capacity for densely populated environments, extending wireless capabilities to a variety of new use cases such as real-time video streaming and wireless back-up. With built-in 802.11ac 160 MHz support, Marvell’s 88W8964 chip delivers up to 2.6 Gbps of peak data rate and is ideal for enterprise access points and multi-stream 4K Ultra HD IPTV streaming in the home. MU-MIMO allows simultaneous and concurrent sessions from one access point to several client devices.
  • Beamforming: Beamforming, a specialized method of radio-frequency transmission that can be integrated across a range of devices from access points to laptops and smartphones, greatly improves link robustness and wireless performance, enabling, for instance, the seamless streaming of HD video in locations where devices could previously maintain only minimal connection to the network. Marvell is unique to offer support for both implicit and explicit beamforming, which improves the performance of existing devices in the network. In addition, beamforming increases the battery life of any device connected to the 88W8964 chip.
  • 802.11mc: 802.11mc provides precision location capability that will enable new avenues for revenue generation and improved return on investment for enterprise and service provider customers.

Additional Product Highlights:

  • Spectrum Intelligence to enhance user experience and reduce customer service costs of service providers
  • Powerful Wi-Fi offload engine, freeing up host CPU resources for service provider’s applications
  • Low Density Parity Check (LDPC), which enables low latency, high throughput connections

Marvell will be demonstrating its wireless solutions at CES 2015 in Marvell’s suite, Level 3, Murano 3304, at The Venetian. CES is being held in Las Vegas, NV at the Las Vegas Convention and World Trade Center and the Venetian Hotel on Jan. 6–9, 2015.

About Marvell

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a global leader in providing complete silicon solutions and Kinoma software enabling the “Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle.” From mobile communications to storage, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, digital entertainment and in-home content delivery, Marvell’s diverse product portfolio aligns complete platform designs with industry-leading performance, security, reliability and efficiency. At the core of the world’s most powerful consumer, network and enterprise systems, Marvell empowers partners and their customers to always stand at the forefront of innovation, performance and mass appeal. By providing people around the world with mobility and ease of access to services adding value to their social, private and work lives, Marvell is committed to enhancing the human experience.

As used in this release, the term “Marvell” refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.Marvell.com.

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