Ralink
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductor, Networking hardware |
| Founded | January 1, 2001 in Cupertino, California, United States |
| Fate | Acquired by MediaTek |
| Headquarters | Hsinchu , Taiwan |
| Parent | MediaTek |
Ralink Technology, Corp. is a manufacturer focused on producing Wi-Fi chipsets, particularly those adhering to IEEE 802.11 (Wireless LAN) standards. Established in 2001 in Cupertino, California, the firm subsequently moved its main operations to Hsinchu, Taiwan. On 5 May 2011, the company was acquired by MediaTek.
The company's RT2800 series of 802.11n chipsets were incorporated into the Wi-Fi Alliance’s draft 2.0 core technology testbed for 802.11n and were chosen for testing in Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) and Wireless Multimedia Extensions Power Save (WMM-PS) environments. Ralink maintained an active role within both the Wi-Fi Alliance and the IEEE 802.11 standards groups.
Ralink's chipsets are embedded in consumer routers from manufacturers such as Gigabyte Technology, Linksys, D-Link, Asus, and Belkin. Additionally, their wireless adapters support various interfaces including USB, PCI, ExpressCard, PC Card, and PCI Express. The Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector notably employs the Ralink RT2570 chipset to facilitate network connectivity for Nintendo DS and Wii consoles.
Operating systems support
Ralink makes available certain chipset documentation without requiring a non-disclosure agreement, including datasheets for PCI and PCIe models; however, documentation for their system-on-chip solutions used in wireless routers has not been publicly released.
Linux
Support for MediaTek Ralink wireless controllers was integrated into the Linux kernel starting with version 2.6.24. The company provides Linux drivers under the GNU General Public License (GPL). While legacy RT2500 chipset drivers are no longer updated by Ralink and are instead maintained by Serialmonkey’s rt2x00 initiative, newer chipsets necessitate firmware loading. Ralink allows firmware redistribution and use but restricts any modifications.
See also
External links
- MediaTek / RaLink RT3070 Driver Win, OSX, Linux https://www.mediatek.com/products/broadbandWifi/rt3070
- Compilation of Wi-Fi products utilizing Ralink chipsets
- ral, ural manual pages for OpenBSD