New chip to enable integrated 802.11n in devices such as set-top boxes and camcorders

As the countdown to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n standard proceeds, comms semiconductor vendor Broadcom has announced a single-chip 802.11n system.

"We've taken a look at our first-generation 802.11n boards and tried to suck in a number of components to cut the bill of materials right down,” said Broadcom's European product manager for wireless devices Gordon Lindsay. “We're even including the power amplifiers on this chip, so in terms of board area this is aimed at PCI Express minicards around 150 sq mm, about half that currently available."

By going to a 65nm die process Lindsay said that Broadcom had cut the power requirements in half and that "the throughput in our tests for actual file transfers is over 200Mbit/s, mainly down to chip and not advanced antenna technology”.

Broadcom said the chip’s footprint will give electronics manufacturers the ability to put 802.11n into devices that never had wireless systems built in before, such as set-top boxes and camcorders.