Beating Texas Instruments Inc.'s similar product release to the punch by a matter of days, Broadcom Corp.  last week unveiled what it touted as an industry first: a single-chip connectivity solution that combines the company's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM receiver technologies onto a single silicon die.

Both companies are evidently hustling to deliver for the booming cell phone market, which is projected by some analysts to ship a record 1.14 billion units in 2007.

Broadcom's BCM4325 combines the three capabilities in an ultra-low power 65-nm CMOS system-on-a-chip (SoC) that it said could have a dramatic effect on mobile devices' size, cost and power consumption. "Integrating multiple wireless technologies onto a single chip is a landmark achievement that will be welcomed by mobile device manufacturers due to the inherent cost, space and power savings it will enable," Stuart Carlaw, wireless research director at ABI Research, said in a statement released last week by Broadcom.

The company claimed its BCM4325, which is sampling now, provides the highest level of integration for mobile or handheld wireless systems featuring IEEE 802.11a/b/g (MAC, baseband and radio), support for Bluetooth 2.0 plus enhanced data rate (EDR) that is upgradeable to version 2.1 and an advanced FM receiver. The FM radio receiver supports the European Radio Data Service (RDS) and the North American Radio Broadcast Data Service (RBDS).

Hot on Broadcom's heels, TI announced on Monday two single-chip devices of its own that are designed to drive affordable WLAN, Bluetooth and FM technologies into mass market handsets. The first product is WiLink 6.0, a single chip that TI said integrates mobile WLAN, Bluetooth and FM on one device with support for IEEE draft 802.11n. The second product is the BlueLink 7.0 solution, the latest version of TI's BlueLink Bluetooth single-chip family that integrates Bluetooth and FM.

The FM functionality in both devices delivers FM transmit and receive capabilities, TI said. Both devices are manufactured in 65nm technology. The WiLink 6.0 solution and BlueLink 7.0 device share the same Bluetooth and FM core solution, TI said.

TI further said its WiLink 6.0 platform can work with the OMAP-Vox family of solutions, including the OMAPV1030 processor and OMAPV1035 "eCosto" single- chip EDGE solution, to provide an optimized modem, applications processor and WLAN/Bluetooth/FM solution for mid-tier handsets.

Designed with TI's DRP technology, TI said the BlueLink 7.0 cuts power consumption by 20 percent over previous generations in critical modes of operation. It also provides class 1.5  functionality, which TI said allows high transmit power without an additional external power amplifier, delivering improved sensitivity and RF performance.

TI said that handsets are expected to be on the market with TI's WiLink 6.0 and BlueLink 7.0 in 2008.

By: DocMemory
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