It didn’t take long before circuit manufacturers jumped on to the new wireless Bluetooth 3.0 + HS (High Speed) standard and Broadcom has now announced the first single-chip solution that not only supports the faster bluetooth format but also regular WiFi transfers with the 802.11 protocol. Broadcom’s InConcert BCM4325 circuit also sports FM functionality, but the wireless transfer capabilities is what impress the most. Bluetooth 3.0 + HS offers transfer rates up to 24Mbps and better compatibility with the WiFi technology.
More on Broadcom’s Bluetooth 3.0 chip in the press release;
Broadcom’s Combo Chip and Software Achieve Bluetooth® Qualification to Newly Ratified Bluetooth v3.0 + HS Specification
New Specification Adds Enhanced Functionality to Broadcom ® InConcert® Combo Chip Products by Enabling Bluetooth Profiles to Leverage High Speed Wi-Fi®
IRVINE, Calif., April 22, 2009 — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its leading Bluetooth® combo chip technology and associated BTE software have been qualified as compliant with the ratified Bluetooth v3.0 + HS (high speed) specification. The new standard significantly expands the capabilities of Bluetooth wireless technology in multimedia smartphones, netbooks and other devices by enabling the transmission of large files via Bluetooth profiles at speeds up to 24 Megabits per second (Mbps), or a 10 times increase in speed over the previous Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR (enhanced data rate) standard. With the company’s InConcert® BCM4325 Bluetooth + Wi-Fi® + FM combo chip solution (the first product in the industry to achieve qualification) and Bluetooth software, Broadcom is uniquely positioned to support the latest Bluetooth specification with proven single-chip solutions.
While competing implementations require multiple discrete components that raise cost and power requirements, Broadcom is able to provide a single-chip solution that includes both a qualified Bluetooth v3.0 BR/EDR (basic rate) controller and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ media access controller (MAC)/physical layer (PHY) device. When combined with Broadcom’s v3.0 + HS qualified host software solution, these products enable OEMs to add the convenience of high speed Bluetooth data transfer while reducing board space, power consumption and overall system cost in next generation Bluetooth-enabled devices. Broadcom’s high speed Bluetooth technology was recently demonstrated at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced the formal adoption of its next generation Bluetooth v3.0 + HS wireless connectivity technology on April 21, 2009, at the SIG Annual All-Hands meeting in Tokyo.
In addition to enabling Bluetooth profiles to utilize high speed 802.11 data rates, Broadcom silicon and software solutions will further enable mobile devices to leverage the low power connection management features provided by Bluetooth wireless technology, increasing the valuable synergy between these already popular technologies. Broadcom is working together with other companies and various standards groups to standardize these additional capabilities.
“The new Bluetooth v3.0 + HS specification is a welcome step in the continuing evolution of Bluetooth technology, adding industry approved techniques for leveraging the high data rates of Wi-Fi with the ease of use, low-power and utility that Bluetooth wireless technology is recognized for,” said Craig Ochikubo, Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom’s Wireless Personal Area Networking line of business. “The new specification makes our combo chip products even more attractive to OEMs who seek to provide their customers with the most complete wireless user experience available.”
The Bluetooth products now qualified as compliant with the v3.0 + HS specification include the Broadcom® BCM4325 802.11b/g combo chip solution that combines Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM radio functionality on a single-chip design. Broadcom’s popular BTE software, the core Bluetooth software stack on which all Broadcom Bluetooth software is based (including BTW, BTW Mobile and embedded software for cellular handsets and other devices) has also been qualified as compliant with the new v3.0 + HS standard. The BCM4325 is also Wi-Fi CERTIFIED in a number of customer products.
In addition to enabling 10 times the transmission speed over previous Bluetooth specifications, v3.0 + HS provides other useful innovations that Broadcom combo chips and BTE software can utilize as well. This includes expanded capabilities for remote control applications featuring Unicast Connectionless Data (UCD) functionality that enables low power operation and reduced latency, making Bluetooth’s radio technology ideally suited for consumer electronics remote control applications. The Bluetooth v3.0 + HS specification also enhances the already powerful security capabilities of Bluetooth technology by including the new Read Encryption Key Size feature that allows Bluetooth applications to ensure an appropriate level of communications security.
Broadcom’s Bluetooth BR/EDR controller solutions, including the BCM4325, further provide support for the Enhanced Power Control feature introduced in the Bluetooth v3.0 + HS specification. This feature provides improved control over transmit power levels on Bluetooth BR/EDR links, improving the robustness of communications and providing better optimized power consumption.
“The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is gratified that Broadcom has played an active role in helping drive the evolution of Bluetooth technology through its contributions to the standard and timely implementation of these new features,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “With strength in multiple wireless technologies, the company is helping make the vision of high speed Bluetooth technology a reality.”
Broadcom’s Bluetooth Technology
Having shipped over one billion Bluetooth products, Broadcom offers the broadest family of Bluetooth silicon and software solutions for mobile phones, PCs, wireless headphones and headsets, peripherals, gaming and other applications. Broadcom’s Bluetooth solutions are widely recognized in the industry as the most broadly deployed and feature-rich solutions. The world’s largest manufacturers of consumer electronics, mobile phones and personal computer products rely on Broadcom Bluetooth technology to provide their customers with a unique, intuitive and rich user experience, increasingly free of wires and cables. Broadcom also offers the most complete Bluetooth software in the industry, maintaining end-to-end integration of its protocol stack, application profiles, and audio enhancement and processing algorithms.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry’s broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is one of the world’s largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2008 revenue of $4.66 billion, holds over 3,300 U.S. and over 1,300 foreign patents, and has more than 7,500 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com.
Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management’s beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “predicts,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing,” similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the size of the consumer electronics market incorporating Bluetooth, the direction of the Bluetooth adoption trend, the demand for consumer electronics products, and our position in that market. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with BCM4325 and BCM4329 combo chip technology and BTE software include, but are not limited to
— the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom’s Bluetooth technologies for mobile applications;
— trends in the wireless networking markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations;
— the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order;
— the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales;
— our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; and
— competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products.
Additional factors that may cause Broadcom’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the list that can be found at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q22009.php.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement, except as required by law.
Broadcom, the pulse logo, Connecting everything, the Connecting everything logo and InConcert are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Bluetooth is a trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
