The AirCard® 400 for Ricochet networks operates as an “Always On” wireless network interface card (NIC), not just as a dial-up modem, to provide Ricochet subscribers with reliable high-speed access to mail, data, corporate applications and the Internet. The AirCard® 400 for Ricochet can be used with laptops, Internet appliances and Pocket PCs with a PCMCIA Type II slot. It allows users to connect to a corporate network or the Internet wirelessly and without the need for a cellular phone. The AirCard® 400 for Ricochet works at speeds up to 128 Kbps.
Note: Ricochet Networks was one of the pioneering wireless Internet service providers in the United States, before the advent of widespread Wi-Fi, 3G, and broadband services were available to the general public. After struggling for about eight years in competition with the wireless data services carried over the cellular telephone networks, in March 2008, the Ricochet service ceased to exist.
Features:
- Speed & mobility – 128 kbps network
- Ease of use – works like a LAN and not a modem
- True type II card – no extensions
- Low power consumption
- Advanced antenna design for enhanced radio sensitivity
- Support mobile devices running Windows, 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME and Pocket PC
Contributions to the product:
| Written Specifications and Procedures | Embedded Software Design |
| Hardware requirements and system I/O mapping Functional specification | Firmware design documents Host interface design notes |
| Code Development | Testing & Debugging |
| Board start-up and boot-loader Flash programming support Host interface protocol (data link layer) for PCMCIA AT command interpreter extensions Firmware "over-the-air" upgrade tools | Firmware debug support Exception/error handler Host interface test and debugging utilities Performance analysis tools |