AirPort cards

AirPort cards are Apple-branded Wi-Fi cards used to connect to wireless networks such as those provided by an AirPort Base Station.

History

Steve Jobs introduces WiFi to the masses with a hula hoop!

Apple Computer interim CEO Steve Jobs met with executives from Lucent Technologies on April 20, 1998 to discuss their technology tentatively named Wireless LAN. Jobs asked them to design a radio card for US$50 so that Apple could market it as an AirPort card for $99. It was introduced by Jobs on July 21, 1999 at Macworld Expo New York as an option for the iBook G3, which became the world’s first Wi-Fi enabled laptop.[1]

AirPort 802.11b card

This original model, known as simply AirPort card, was identical to Lucent’s own WaveLAN/Orinoco Gold PC card, in a modified housing that lacked the integrated antenna. It was designed to be capable of being user-installable. It was also modified in such a way that it could not be used in a regular PCMCIA slot (at the time it was significantly cheaper than the official WaveLAN/Orinoco Gold card). An AirPort card adapter is also required to use this card in a slot-loading iMac G3.

AirPort Extreme 802.11g cards

Corresponding with the release of the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the AirPort Extreme card became available as an option on the current models. It is based on a Broadcom 802.11g chipset and is housed in a custom form factor, but is electrically compatible with the Mini PCI standard. It was also capable of being user-installed.

Variants of the user-installable AirPort Extreme card are marked A-1010 (early North American spec), A-1026 (current North American spec), A-1027 (Europe/Asia spec (additional channels)) and A-1095 (unknown).

A different 802.11g card was included in the last iteration of the PowerPC-based PowerBooks and iBooks. A major distinction for this card was that it was the first “combo” card that included both 802.11g as well as Bluetooth. It was also the first card that was not user-installable. It was again a custom form factor, but was still electrically a Mini PCI interface for the Broadcom WLAN chip. A separate USB connection was used for the on-board Bluetooth chip.

The AirPort Extreme (802.11g) card was discontinued in January 2009.

Integrated AirPort Extreme 802.11a/b/g and /n cards

As 802.11g began to come standard on all notebook models, Apple phased out the user-installable designs in their notebooks, iMacs and Mac minis by mid-2005, moving to an integrated design. AirPort continued to be an option, either installed at purchase or later, on the Power Mac G5 and the Mac Pro.

With the introduction of the Intel-based MacBook Pro in January 2006, Apple began to use a standard PCI Express mini card. The particular brand and model of card has changed over the years; in early models, it was Atheros brand, while since late 2008 they have been Broadcom cards. This distinction is mostly of concern to those who run other operating systems such as Linux on MacBooks, as different cards require different device drivers.

The MacBook Air Mid 2012 13″,[2] MacBook Air Mid 2011 13″[3] and MacBook Air Late 2010 (11″, A1370[4] and 13″, Model A1369[5]) each use a Broadcom BCM 943224 PCIEBT2 Wi-Fi card (main chip BCM43224: 2 × 2 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz[6]).

The MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2012[7] uses Broadcom BCM94331CSAX (main chip BCM4331: 3 x 3 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, up to 450Mbit/s).

In early 2007, Apple announced that most Intel Core 2 Duo-based Macs, which had been shipping since November 2006, already included AirPort Extreme cards compatible with the draft-802.11 Draft-N specification. Apple also offered an application to enable 802.11 Draft-N functionality on these Macs for a fee of $1.99, or free with the purchase of an AirPort Extreme base station.[8] Starting with Leopard, the Draft-N functionality was quietly enabled on all Macs that had Draft-N cards. This card was also a PCI Express mini design, but used three antenna connectors in the notebooks and iMacs, in order to use a 2 × 3 MIMO antenna configuration. The cards in the Mac Pro and Apple TV have two antenna connectors and support a 2 × 2 configuration. The Network Utility application located in Applications → Utilities can be used to identify the model and supported protocols of an installed AirPort card.[9]

Integrated AirPort Extreme 802.11ac cards

The mid-2013 MacBook Air uses a Broadcom BCM94360CS2 (main chip BCM4360: 2 x 2 : 2[10]).[11]

References