Atheros Linux wireless drivers
==============================

This page documents all `Atheros Communications
<http://www.atheros.com/>`__ Linux wireless drivers.

Contribution map
----------------

We have a `Google Drive spreadsheet
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtNdeeyGJEJ7dG45U2xrZldlQm80Nlg5QzEwUmtNUGc>`__
with graphs you can view. Several formats are available:

- `HTML <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtNdeeyGJEJ7dG45U2xrZldlQm80Nlg5QzEwUmtNUGc&output=html>`__
- `PDF <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtNdeeyGJEJ7dG45U2xrZldlQm80Nlg5QzEwUmtNUGc&output=pdf>`__
- `ATOM <https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/0AtNdeeyGJEJ7dG45U2xrZldlQm80Nlg5QzEwUmtNUGc/od6/public/basic>`__
- `RSS <https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/0AtNdeeyGJEJ7dG45U2xrZldlQm80Nlg5QzEwUmtNUGc/od6/public/basic?alt=rss>`__
- `ODS <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtNdeeyGJEJ7dG45U2xrZldlQm80Nlg5QzEwUmtNUGc&output=ods>`__
- `CSV <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtNdeeyGJEJ7dG45U2xrZldlQm80Nlg5QzEwUmtNUGc&output=csv>`__

If you'd like to contribute please contact one of the device driver maintainers.

Shared modules
--------------

Atheros drivers tend to follow a lineage of hardware families and as
they progress pick things up from one family or another and sometimes
keep things the same. So hardware or EEPROM layouts can share certain
characteristics and the same code can be reused through different
hardware families.

Shared module for Atheros 802.11 drivers:

* :doc:`ath <ath>` - code that is common amongst all hardware families 

IRC
---

For support and development for all drivers we use the
:doc:`#linux-wireless IRC channel <../support>` on irc.freenode.net.

PCI / PCI-E / AHB Drivers
-------------------------

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1

   - 

      - Technology
      - Upstream driver
   - 

      - 802.11abg
      - :doc:`ath5k <ath5k>`
   - 

      - 802.11abgn
      - :doc:`ath9k <ath9k>`
   - 

      - 802.11ac
      - :doc:`ath10k <ath10k>`
   - 

      - 802.11ad
      - :doc:`wil6210 <wil6210>`

USB Drivers
-----------

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1

   - 

      - Technology
      - Legacy driver
      - Upstream driver
   - 

      - 802.11b
      - None
      - `zd1201 <en/users/Drivers/zd1201>`__
   - 

      - 802.11bg
      - `zd1211 <http://sf.net/projects/zd1211/>`__
      - :doc:`zd1211rw <zd1211rw>`
   - 

      - 802.11abg
      - None
      - :doc:`ar5523 <ar5523>`
   - 

      - 802.11abgn
      - :doc:`otus <otus>` / :doc:`ar9170 <ar9170>`
      - :doc:`carl9170 <carl9170>` (:doc:`carl9170.fw GPLv2 <carl9170.fw>`)
   - 

      - 802.11abgn
      - None
      - :doc:`ath9k_htc <ath9k_htc>`

Mobile (SDIO & CF)
------------------

* :doc:`ar6k <ar6k>` - Non-upstream GPL mobile driver, as used by OpenMoko
* :doc:`ath6kl <ath6kl>` - Reference driver from Atheros for AR600x with cfg80211 support 

Licensing
---------

To help other FOSS Operating Systems, when possible, Atheros licenses
their device drivers source code under a permissive license. Atheros
picked the `ISC License <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISC_license>`__
due to historical reasons, mainly that of the ath5k developers also
choosing it to help share code between Linux and OpenBSD. Atheros
follows this tradition to further assist not only OpenBSD but also other
FOSS Operating Systems. There are a few exceptions to using the ISC
license on Atheros drivers, when in doubt consult the header of the file
for the respective license of the file.

As far as firmware is concerned Atheros does try to open source firmware
when possible with the first release being that of :doc:`ar9170.fw
<ar9170.fw>`. When not possible (lack of resources mainly) we do try to
work with the community to see if this can be done through side
community work, and only if not possible at all do we release firmware
as binary with a friendly standard redistributable license.