If you are running linux, there are a variety of methods to obtain card information and possibly determine the chipset. Here are some methods:
The “dmesg” command can quite often contain detailed messages indicating what card was detected and the chipset.
If the card is an ISA card, you are usually out of luck.
If the card is a PCI card, you need to use the command “lspci -nn” to display the card identification strings. In some cases, such as on cards with Broadcom chipsets, this alone can reveal the chipset. The ”-nn” should cause the PCI ID to be displayed. An example of what a PCI ID looks like is “168c:0013” for an Atheros chipset card. Once you have the PCI ID, there are many Internet sites to do lookups. Some sites are http://pciids.sourceforge.net/ or http://www.pcidatabase.com/. You can find other lookup sites by search for “PCI ID”. As well, the kernel modules required and in use are displayed. This can be very helpful in identifying the chipset.
If the hardware is a USB dongle, you need to use the command “lsusb” to display the dongle identification strings. In some case, “lsusb” doesn't work (for example if usbfs is not mounted), and you can get the identification strings from the kernel log using “dmesg” (or in /var/log/messages).
If the card is a Cardbus card (32 bits Pcmcia), and if you are using a relatively new kernel (2.4.X or above) with the kernel Pcmcia subsystem, you need to use the command “lspci -nn” to display the card identification strings. If the card is a Cardbus card (32 bits Pcmcia), and if you are using an older kernel with the standalone Pcmcia subsystem, you need to use the command “cardctl ident” display the card identification strings. Try both and see what comes out.
If the card is a true Pcmcia card (16 bits), and if you are using kernel 2.6.14 or later, you need to use the command “pccardctl ident” to display the card identification strings. If the card is a true Pcmcia card (16 bits), and if you are using an older kernel, you need to use the command “cardctl ident” display the card identification strings. Note that cardmgr will also write some identification strings in the message logs (/var/log/daemon.log) that may be different from the real card identification strings.
The “lsmod” command can be used to see the loaded modules. If the wireless card was auto-detected then you can sometimes work backwards based on the loaded modules to determine the chipset.
The quieter you become, the more you can hear!