Broadcom 802.11n Wi-Fi Solution Plays Well With Others

Broadcom is now offering a family of interoperable 802.11n draft-compliant Wi-Fi products for a variety of consumer applications.

The company’s Intensi-fi chipsets support rates up to 300 Mbits/s, and have two antennas for simultaneous transmission and reception ( see Figure ). They feature an all-CMOS design and support multiple antenna configurations (2 x 2, 2 x 3, 3 x 3, and 4 x 4).

Intensi-fi chips require less than 20 mW in power-down mode and 1.8 V when the device is in operation. They can work on 2.4- to 2.5-GHz and 4.9- to 5.85-GHz operating frequencies.

The Intensi-fi chipset includes a draft-802.11n media access controller (MAC)/baseband chip (BCM4321) and a dual-band radio chip (BCM2055), which can be configured for a variety of high-speed wireless applications. Broadcom also offers a network processor (BCM4704) that provides advanced routing and bridging capabilities for router and gateway designs.

Intensi-fi products are interoperable with numerous 802.11a/b/g/n devices, and meet worldwide regulatory certifications. Possible applications include home multimedia-entertainment wireless networks, consumer Wi-Fi devices, and wireless client cards for desktop and mobile PCs.