Tech Ticker

Citing the surge of combination chips for space-constraint devices and the need for low power consumption, Broadcom has come up with a combo chip that integrates Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth and a FM receiver as well as transmitter on a single silicon die.

Broadcom is the first company to add 802.11n in chips and they claim that it can provide a wireless throughput of up to 50Mbps. It also boasts other Wi-Fi features like Space Time Block Coding (STBC), Short Gual Interval (SGI), A-MPDU aggregation, Block Ack, Greenfield and RIFS. Since both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth share the same 2.4GHz band, the chip uses a co-existence algorithm and a shared antenna system to minimize the interference.

Broadcom has scheduled this BCM4329 combination chip to mass produced in 2009.

Press Release