Broadcom Delivers Industry’s First Single-Chip 802.11n USB Solution to Bring Low Cost, Dual-Band Performance to Wi-Fi USB Adapters

Broadcom Delivers Industry's First Single-Chip 802.11n USB Solution to Bring Low Cost, Dual-Band Performance to Wi-Fi USB Adapters

Broadcom announced the world's first single-chip dual-band 802.11n solution for universal serial bus (USB) adapters.

Broadcom announced the world's first single-chip dual-band 802.11n solution for universal serial bus (USB) adapters. The newest member of Broadcom's Intensi-fi XLR wireless LAN (WLAN) family enables very small and cost-effective USB adapters that consumers can use to connect PCs, TVs, set-top boxes, personal video recorders, and other devices to a Wi-Fi network. The new Broadcom dual-band chip also features the company's new Accelerange technology to provide the wireless performance and range that is required to transfer high-definition (HD) content between devices throughout a home.

Most Wi-Fi equipment vendors now offer USB adapters (often called dongles) that connect non-wireless devices to a wireless network. According to ABI Research, annual shipments of Wi-Fi USB adapters will reach 15 million by 2011. A majority of these will be dual-band 802.11n adapters, to serve the growing number of consumers who are using the 5 GHz portion of their wireless network for video streaming and voice over IP (VoIP) calls. With greater network capacity and less interference than the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band is ideal for multimedia applications that require higher bandwidth, more robust signals and lower latency.

Announced today is the Broadcom BCM4323 USB solution. Designed using 65 nanometer (nm) CMOS technology, the single-chip solution enables 20mm x 52mm USB modules that are half the size of those built with multi-chip solutions. The highly-integrated chip also offers the industry's lowest bill of materials (BOM) cost, which enables manufacturers to build dual-band 802.11n USB adapters with form factors and price points that are comparable to most of today's single band 802.11n adapters. The BCM4323 also features an integrated ARM processor and on-chip RAM that can offload wireless functions from the host processor in consumer devices. This enables manufacturers to easily embed dual-band 802.11n capabilities directly into multimedia products, such as digital TVs, set-top boxes and DVD players.

For more on Intense-fi, visit: http://www.broadcom.com/products/intensi-fi.php

For BCM4323, see: http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.11-Wireless-LAN-Solutions/BCM4323