On the heels of Broadcom's SecureEasySetup announcement, Atheros offers JumpStart for Wireless: Atheros trumpets three mouse clicks to set up a secure network, but they may have been trumped by Broadcom's announcement, which incorporates Linksys, HP, and Buffalo, and requires a single button to be pressed on an access point and client device, consumer or otherwise. The Broadcom button can be physical or in software.

Atheros describes JumpStart has having a four-layer security process, but it's not quite that fascinating: it requires out-of-band inspection (seeing LEDs flash), a tunnel that uses essentially SSL/TLS, a secure WPA or WPA2 (TKIP or AES) key, and a password for adding new devices. Broadcom's one-button method uses flashing lights, an SSL tunnel, and WPA.

Both Atheros and Broadcom's offerings work with Centrino--in fact, it sounds like both security simplifiers work with any client that can run the correct management software. The key part of the process lives in the firmware of an access point. Both offerings also work with Microsoft's new Connect Now profile management system, which is expected to be discussed in depth at CES this week.

Atheros also announced immediate availability of a MIMO chipset, adding yet another player to the MIMO market. By my count, there are now four, none of which seem to have any early interest in compatibility for future roadmapping towards 802.11n upgrades, and we're just getting started. I'd like to see a single statement from any of these vendors about whether their devices have any possibility of being firmware upgraded for 802.11n: my money is that none of them will take an upgrade to the final version and the no company will state firmly either way whether they'll be upgradable to final N.