Wi-Fi Protected Access 802.11 Security Solution Supported by TI’s WLAN Products
New Standard Will Provide Stronger Security for Wireless Enterprise and Home Networks

DALLAS (Oct. 31, 2002) -- Wi-Fi Protected Access, a standards-based security solution announced today by the Wi-Fi Alliance, will be fully supported by Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) 802.11 products. The solution is a software upgrade to replace WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), enabling stronger security for 802.11 wireless LANs (WLANs) until the IEEE 802.11i standard is finalized.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

“Robust security is a critical feature for all WLAN products. Wi-Fi Protected Access provides an easy software upgrade to existing products that allows WLAN equipment vendors to keep users’ data more secure, until the IEEE 802.11i standard is completed next year,” said Bill Carney, director of business development of TI’s Wireless Networking Business Unit, and also TI’s member of the Wi-Fi Alliance Board of Directors. “TI fully supports extended security features and will include Wi-Fi Protected Access as a standard feature for all our next generation station and access point software product releases. TI will offer our 802.11 customers a software upgrade to existing products for the first round of Wi-Fi testing in February 2003.”

Wi-Fi Protected Access is derived from the work being done on the IEEE 802.11i draft standard for security and is designed to be compatible with the final 802.11i standard. The software upgradeable security is meant to increase the level of key privacy and management used with encryption and authentication in WLANs, to provide additional security for wireless enterprises and home networks.

About Texas Instruments WLAN

Texas Instruments provides high-performance, low power 802.11 solutions for the growing Wi-Fi market by leveraging the company’s history of innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband. TI has Wi-Fi certified 802.11b designs and offers extended reach and rate to customers who want to deliver best in class 802.11 products to market quickly. TI’s WLAN business is part of TI’s comprehensive portfolio of broadband solutions including cable modems, DSL modems and infrastructure, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateways, and carrier infrastructure. (See http://www.ti.com/wlan .)