TAIWAN, Hsinchu – 03 May 2012 – MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, today announced that its Wi-Fi system-on-a-chip (SoC), the RT6856, has been incorporated into D-Link’s latest Wi-Fi cloud routers. As a global leader in connectivity, D-Link will be shipping several new cloud routers this spring.

The MediaTek RT6856 Wi-Fi SoC contains a powerful 700 MHz MIPS® 34KEc™ CPU core and dual PCI Express interfaces to simultaneously enable two Wi-Fi streams for “dual band concurrent” home networks providing high quality data, voice and video applications. This powerful SoC allows consumers to create two wireless networks both running at full bandwidth speeds, thus offering a significant increase in total network capacity. The MediaTek RT6856 also features two USB 2.0 interfaces for 3G/4G broadband connectivity, wireless printer sharing, or wireless storage applications; and SPI, I2C, I2S, and PCM interfaces for audio streaming and VoIP applications. Plus, this chip also includes the company’s field proven hardware support for Network Address Translation (NAT) that make its LAN to WAN routing performance five times faster than conventional software-based products.

“D-Link’s latest cloud routers, like the DIR-636L and DIR-826L, bring rich cloud applications to homes and offices with the help of the MediaTek RT6856’s outstanding Wi-Fi and USB performance,” said Jocelyn Chung, VP of Marketing at D-Link Corporation. “As a valued partner, MediaTek’s solution delivers many features tailored to the cloud computing environment which has helped D-Link to significantly accelerate product planning and development,” Chung also went on to say. “We are grateful to MediaTek for supporting these joint development projects that further enrich our offerings to sales channels worldwide.”

"MediaTek’s RT6856 SoC with hardware NAT technology is suited perfectly for D-Link’s consumer-centric requirements: Rock-solid wireless performance, whole home coverage, intuitive setup, and no customer service ‘truck rolls’," said SR Tsai, General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Connectivity & Networking Business Unit. "The MediaTek RT6856-based Wi-Fi router delivers speed, range and reliability, and cloud-enabled software offering a plug-and-play home user experience. We are excited about the opportunity to partner with D-Link on delivering high-performance wireless cloud computing that D-Link requires for its customer base.”

The MediaTek RT6856 system-on-a-chip solution can be paired with any PCIe interface MediaTek WiFi chips to create different WiFi configurations and can also be upgraded to support the upcoming 802.11ac Wi-Fi product line. Hardware and software design kits and customer samples for both AP/routers are now available. 

Key MediaTek RT6856 product features include:

• Best-in-class Wi-Fi to Ethernet bridging for enhanced wireless network performance
• Best-in-class hardware network address translation (NAT) acceleration engine with gigabit-grade routing capability for advanced cloud applications
• Superior USB performance for 3G/4G broadband connectivity, wireless printer sharing, consumer electronics, or wireless storage applications
• High performance hardware VPN accelerator for SMB-class networking applications

About MediaTek

Since 1997, MediaTek has been a pioneering fabless semiconductor company and a market leader in cutting-edge systems-on-chip (SoC) for mobile devices, wireless networking, HDTV, DVD and Blu-ray. Our tightly-integrated, innovative chip designs help manufacturers optimize supply chains, reduce the development time of new products, and extend a competitive edge in crowded markets. Through MediaTek Labs, the company is also building a developer hub that will support device creation, application development, and services for the Internet of Things era. By building technologies that help connect individuals to the world around them, MediaTek is enabling people to expand their horizons and more easily achieve their goals. We believe anyone can achieve something amazing. And we believe they can do it every single day. We call this idea Everyday Genius and it drives everything we do. Visit mediatek.com for more information.