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Broadcom Crams 802.11n, Bluetooth, and FM Onto a Single Chip

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bang-for-your-amp dept.

Broadcom has managed to cram 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and FM reception/transmission all into a single "combo wireless chip." Designed to be a better wireless implementation for portable devices, the chip seeks to lower chip counts and integration costs. "Broadcom is the second firm — following Atheros in a single-function chip — to announce a single-stream 802.11n product, in which one of 802.11n's advantages is shaved off in favor of a faster baseline performance and lower battery consumption. This move is meant to replace 802.11g in portable devices without draining a battery faster and providing other advantages that make up for what's become a slight cost difference."

4 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Broadcom is crap by rewter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Broadcom wireless chipsets are crap. And I am speaking out of real embedded system design experience here.

    1. Re:Broadcom is crap by Klaus_1250 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Which ones aren't? Ralink has that famous will-randomly-disconnect-wpa-connections bug. Broadcom has the issue with not having open drivers. Which leaves Atheros? Marvell? ...

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  2. Package Size by necro81 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Neither the article, nor Broadcom's product page, nor the product brochure pdf mention the package size. Any guesses?

    I suppose it is probably a smaller footprint than three discrete radio chips put together. One usually gets better die-level integration than board level, and you can usually eliminate redundant functions that way.

    Even if it were larger footprint, the fact that you could address and power just one chip rather than three would be a winning advantage on its own.

  3. Re:Broadcom? by i.of.the.storm · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm not a wireless expert, but I thought a lot of draft n stuff would be firmware upgradable to the final draft when it comes out. Is that just for certain routers? My laptop has draft n but I've never used it, n routers are too expensive and I'm not sure if DD-WRT supports draft n anyway.

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