Broadcom Boosts Wi-Fi Coverage

Broadcom announced two new 54g wireless LAN chipsets with "BroadRange" technology, enabling Wi-Fi users to maintain high speed wireless connections at distances up to 50% greater than previous generation solutions. BroadRange technology uses advanced digital signal processing techniques to improve the receive sensitivity. Broadcom said the technology complies with IEEE 802.11 standards. The company plans to integrate it into a wide range of Wi-Fi products -- from notebook PCs to routers to cell phones.



The first two products include the new BCM4318E, which is the third-generation product in Broadcom's line of single-chip client solutions. The highly-integrated chip can power down to consume as little as 9mW in idle mode. Broadcom has also enhanced its integrated wireless LAN processor with BroadRange technology. The BCM5352E combines high-performance 54g wireless routing, Fast Ethernet switching and a MIPS instruction set processor into a single system-on-a-chip (SoC). It can be paired with Broadcom's BCM2050 radio for delivering wireless and wired performance and security previously available from devices at up to twice the cost. http://www.broadcom.com