14 DAY TRIAL // Semiconductor company Broadcom Corporation has announced the industry's first 5G WiFi (802.11ac) 2x2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system-on-a-chip (SoC) that will power future smartphones like the iPhone 6.
Now in production, the chip will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which runs until February 27. It delivers twice the WiFi performance of traditional 1x1 MIMO devices used in today’s smartphones and improves power efficiency by up to 25 percent.
Broadcom has done some market research and learned that “Consumers expect a fast, always-on smartphone experience. Performance however can be degraded by many factors including how a phone is held or positioned.”
“In the past, MIMO systems have solved these problems on tablets and larger devices by using multiple antennas. With Broadcom's advanced antenna and PHY design, the BCM4354 can now deliver the benefits of 5G WiFi 2x2 MIMO to smaller platform designs like smartphones while reducing implementation complexity for designers,” the chip maker explains.
By creating the BCM4354, Broadcom has achieved what it refers to as “the industry’s first practical implementation of 2x2 MIMO on a smartphone.” Since Apple uses Broadcom wireless chips in its current iPhones, the iPhone 6 is quite likely to sport the new 5G WiFi SoC.
Dino Bekis, Broadcom vice president, Marketing, Wireless Connectivity Combos, said, “Smartphones have become the epicenter of today's digital life and consumers are demanding ever increasing levels of performance and sophistication.”
“As a leader in wireless connectivity solutions, Broadcom continues to deliver unprecedented features and capabilities to this demanding and rapidly growing market,” added Bekis.
The benefits will not only be felt in reliability and battery life, but also in the rate over range performance in congested environments for apps that eat up a lot of data.
“Photo and video uploads to social networking sites, for example, will be twice as fast in crowded sporting events or concert venues,” says the company.
The firm offers the key features of its all-new wireless chip as follows:
• The Broadcom BCM4354 is a dual-band combo chip for smartphones and tablets that supports 5G Wi-Fi 2x2 MIMO, Bluetooth (BT) 4.1/BLE, Rezence wireless charging support and FM radio receiver. Highlights include:
• 867 Mbps PHY rate/80MHz channel bandwidth • SDIO 3.0 and low-power PCIe host interfaces for WLAN; UART and USB for BT • Android, Windows and Chrome-based operating systems support • Low Density Parity Check Codes (LDPC), Space Time Block Coding (STBC), TurboQAM and high-accuracy indoor location
Broadcomm directs users to http://www.broadcom.com/products/features/5gwifi.php for more information on 5G WiFi.