Atheros Communications has announced that its AR5008 chipset and XB72 draft 802.11n mini card have received official PCI Express compatibility certification. Thanks to the AR5008 chipset, the XB72 offers data transfer rates of up to 300Mbps and has 10 times the range of existing 802.11a/b/g solutions.

While Atheros may have the first certified mini PCIe card, there are already 802.11n solutions for notebooks available. Dell announced its $59 Wireless 1500 Draft 802.11n card for notebooks last month while Acer has announced that its Ferrari 1000 will ship with a Broadcom-based Intensi-Fi 802.11n card according to Laptop Logic.

802.11n products have been getting a lot of exposure recently as manufacturers have been scrambling to release new products based on the 802.11n draft standard while quickly release firmware updates for older products. Performance has been steadily on the rise and eWeek's latest round of testing shows that 802.11n products are offering over 130Mbps of real-world throughput. Manufacturers are also making improvements to compatibility issues surrounding competing chipsets and have taken measures to improve wireless security.