PRISM (chipset)
Encyclopedia
PRISM wireless networking solutions are a family of Conexant
chipset
s used for Wireless LAN
s, and were formerly produced by Intersil Corporation
.
driver supports the IEEE 802.11b Prism 2/2.5/3 family of chips.
Wireless adaptors which use the Prism chipset are known for compatibility, and are preferred for specialist applications such as packet capture.
No win64 drivers are known to exist.
Intersil initially provided a Linux driver for the first Prism54 chips which implemented a large part of the 802.11 stack in the firmware. However, further cost reductions caused a new, lighter firmware to be designed and the amount of on-chip memory to shrink, making it impossible to run the older version of the firmware on the latest chips. In the meantime, the PRISM business was sold to Conexant, which never published information about the newer firmware API that would enable a Linux driver to be written.
However, a reverse engineering effort eventually made it possible to use the new Prism54 chipsets under the Linux and BSD operating systems.
Conexant
Conexant Systems, Inc. is an American semiconductor company, formerly the semiconductor division of Rockwell International. Currently it's privately owned by Golden Gate Capital, an equity firm headquartered in San Francisco.-History:...
chipset
Chipset
A chipset, PC chipset, or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.- Computers :...
s used for Wireless LAN
Wireless LAN
A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...
s, and were formerly produced by Intersil Corporation
Intersil
Intersil Corporation is an American company that specializes in the design, development and manufacturing of high-performance analog semiconductors for four high-growth markets — Communications, Computing, High End Consumer and Industrial.-Company history:...
.
Legacy 802.11b products (Prism 2/2.5/3)
The open-source HostAPHostAP
HostAP is one of the most popular IEEE 802.11 device drivers for Linux. It works with cards using the Conexant Prism 2/2.5/3 chipset and support Host AP mode, which allows a WLAN card to perform all the functions of a wireless access point....
driver supports the IEEE 802.11b Prism 2/2.5/3 family of chips.
Wireless adaptors which use the Prism chipset are known for compatibility, and are preferred for specialist applications such as packet capture.
No win64 drivers are known to exist.
802.11b/g products (Prism54, ISL38xx)
The chipset has undergone a major redesign for 802.11g compatibility and cost reduction, and newer "Prism54" chipsets are not compatible with their predecessors.Intersil initially provided a Linux driver for the first Prism54 chips which implemented a large part of the 802.11 stack in the firmware. However, further cost reductions caused a new, lighter firmware to be designed and the amount of on-chip memory to shrink, making it impossible to run the older version of the firmware on the latest chips. In the meantime, the PRISM business was sold to Conexant, which never published information about the newer firmware API that would enable a Linux driver to be written.
However, a reverse engineering effort eventually made it possible to use the new Prism54 chipsets under the Linux and BSD operating systems.
External links
- PRISM solutions at Conexant
- GPL drivers and firmware for the ISL38xx-based Prism chipsets (mostly reverse engineered)