Single-Chip 802.11n Promises Cheap Fast Wi-Fi

Broadcom has put 802.11n wireless networking fast Wi-Fi on a single chip, which could make fast Wi-Fi cheaper in the New Year. "This will make life significantly easier for people developing 802.11n solutions," said Gordon Lindsay, Broadcom's European wireless product manager. "It uses our 65nm tech, and is half the size of our previous devices, and cuts the power demand by 50 percent to a more manageable 1.6W."

The chip, which is being announced at this week's Global Wi-Fi Summit in Beijing, can fit on a PCI Express Mini Card, to go in laptops and access points, is a dual-band 802.11n system, operating in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, and also includes the power amplifiers to drive the radios. It's sampling now, and will be in products on the shelves in the first quarter of 2008, he said.