Performance Improvement - 11g and Super-G / XR
Atheros doesn't make any claims for performance improvement when its Super-G products are used with non-Super-G gear. But I figured while I had everything set up and was on a roll, that I'd take a look at seeing whether they should.
For this test, I used a NETGEAR WGU624 Double 108 router and WG511U Double 108 CardBus card. I upgraded the WGU624 to 1.0.1.10EN firmware, disabled the 11a radio, set it to auto 108 mode, and enabled the Super-G, XR and Adaptive Radio options. I left the WG511U card at its defaults and used the WinXP 3.3.0.1156 driver.
Figure 29: Four Location uplink throughput - 11g STA, Super-G AP
(click on image to enlarge)
Figure 29 shows that using the Super-G router with the Linksys WPC54G cuts the throughput almost to around 4Mbps in Locations 2 - 4. This is about a 50% reduction from the already no-so-great 8Mbps produced in these locations by the WRT54G / WPC54G straight Broadcom 11g pair!
Figure 30: Four Location uplink throughput - Super-G STA, 11g AP
(click on image to enlarge)
Figure 30 shows a much better result when using the NETGEAR WG511U Super-G client with Linksys WRT54G 11g router. Throughput is boosted to 17-18Mbps, a result similar to what I got when using the True MIMO client with the 11g router (Figure 28). I should note again that actual numbers varied, but I achieved similar results in the downlink direction for both the above combinations.
I guess with these results, Atheros doesn't need to make any changes in its Super-G marketing message!