Marvell's Response to the 802.11n Food Fight (MRVL, ATHR, BRCM)

After a posting and inside look at the trials and tribulations of 802.11n chip makers, I had a follow up conversation with Mahesh Venkatraman, Senior Technology Marketing Manager for Marvell. The company says that its 802.11n chipset, the 88W836X family:

1. Is shipping in volume. Marvell says that its chips are beyond sampling and are shipping in volume. The company would give no dates, but indicated that its 802.11n chipset already had several design wins.

2. Will appear in retail access points (APs) and adapters, first. Unlike Marvell’s previous focus on the embedded market (Sony PSP, Microsoft Xbox 360, some multimode phones with Wi-Fi), its first 802.11n chipsets will appear in discrete consumer Wi-Fi products such as adapters, routers, and APs. Marvell characterized the timeframe for these products as “soon.