Broadcom Delivers Combo Wireless Functions Within Android
by Sam Dean - Feb. 05, 2009Comments (1)- Related Blog Posts
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It looks like Android-based phones are going to become more competitive with other smartphones on a very important front: diversified wireless capabilities on "combo" chips. Broadcom announced today that the software that controls its leading Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM combination chips is standard in the latest Android operating system. Android handsets already support Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but only through discrete components, which means, among other things, that handset designs have included compromises, and extra costs for buyers.
According to Broadcom, its BCM4325 chip is the best-selling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi combo processor on the market. "Adding Broadcom's BCM4325 drivers to the Android platform simplifies the integration of these connectivity technologies and accelerates platform development cycles," says a statement from the company. Developers have open access to Broadcom's drivers and the company is encouraging imaginative application development around them.
According to IDC research, combo chips will account for nearly 60 percent of connectivity solutions that ship into mobile phones by 2012. Android handsets need to be competitive on this front.
"Two of the most exciting trends in the handset industry are the growing popularity of Android and the transition to combo chips for connectivity," said Chris Bergey, Director of Broadcom's Embedded WLAN line of business. "As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, we are committed to advancing the Android platform by contributing our software and facilitating greater access to our combination chips in the open source community. We expect a plethora of products and applications to evolve from the connected Android platform in the not-so-distant future."
Increasingly, sleek-but-capable handset designs are going to call for more functionality on a single silicon die. Hopefully, when 802.11n--the next generation of Wi-Fi--gets ratified later this year, we'll also start to see it becoming standardized in both handsets and hotspots.
