Chipmaker Marvell claims to have developed a four-channel 802.11n chip which it is putting into the shops. The chip, with the catchy title Avastar 88W8764 is being touted as the "new generation" of wireless gear. Based on a single die, the chip is targeted at enterprise access points and service provider gateways to routers, servers, digital TVs, and set-top boxes.

According to Marvell, the beastie uses open standards for controlling and managing network access and can lead the way for four independent transmit-receive radio frequency (RF) chains while at the same time. This means supporting three multiple input, multiple output (MIMO)
special streams for as much as 450-Mbps data rates. Marvel said the four RF chains create stable and robust high-order 802.11n modulation and coding scheme data rates.

Weili Dai, co-founder of Marvell said that Wi-Fi punters expect and demand seamless, high-performance, robust, and secure connectivity, zero latency, and crystal clear communication between  their connected devices. Marvell tells us that the Avastar family supports a wide spectrum of
consumer products including tablet computers, smartphones, eReaders, digital cameras, laptops, printers, access point routers, Blu-ray players, and high-definition (HD) television sets. No word on prices yet.