Broadcom intros a trio of 802.11ac WiFi chips for PCs and set-top boxes

Broadcom Announces New 5G WiFi Chips for the Connected Home

First 2x2 802.11ac Combos and New Retail Dongle Chips Expand 5G WiFi Portfolio

TAIPEI, Taiwan – COMPUTEX 2013 – June 3, 2013

News Highlights:

* 5G WiFi with Bluetooth support improves wireless range and extend integration beyond mobile computing devices
* New combo chips enable OEMs to design faster and more power-efficient products for PCs, tablets and settop-boxes
* Chips with USB 3.0, PCIe and SDIO 3.0 interfaces provide OEMs with options to maximize 5G WiFi performance in a range of product segments

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced it has expanded its 5G WiFi portfolio with a line of 2x2 5G WiFi products. The new chips deliver the speed, range and power benefits necessary for connected home devices, including PCs, tablets, set-top-boxes, TVs, and retail routers. New 5G WiFi products will be showcased at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.

Consumers are streaming more high-definition content across more devices in the home. Broadcom's new 5G WiFi chips, including the BCM4350, BCM43556 and BCM43558, enable OEMs to develop a variety of devices in different form factors designed to meet growing consumer demand for speed, reliability and power efficiency.

"Broadcom's new 2x2 combo chips extend our leadership and mark another industry first for 802.11ac technology," said Rahul Patel, Broadcom Vice President, Product Marketing, Wireless Connectivity Combo Group. "By offering multiple design options we are enabling more devices to reap the dramatic benefits of 5G WiFi, significantly improving performance in the connected home."

Key Features:

The new line of 2X2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) 5G WiFi solutions from Broadcom support the following features:

o Transmit beamforming and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes for robust coverage in a
connected home ecosystem, and support for beamformer and beamforming receiver
o 866 Mbps wireless local area network (WLAN) PHY rate for superior speed
o Broadcom proprietary TurboQAM for 33 percent increase in 2.4GHz speed
o Broadcom proprietary Channel Smoothing WLAN PHY to increase receiver sensitivity by an average
of 2 db across 802.11n and 802.11ac rates

BCM4350 is a combo chip designed specifically for PCs, tablets and set-top-boxes, and supports the following:

o PCIe and SDIO3.0 interfaces for high-performance, low-power consumption PCs, tablets and set-topboxes
o Low-power modes to optimize battery life
o Support for Microsoft Windows and Android operating systems
o Integrated Bluetooth 4.0 for set-top-boxes to assist in voice search, audio streaming and gestural remote control for navigation and gaming
o Multiscreen content sharing from mobile platforms directly to TV
o Whole-home DVR functionality, browsing, gaming and Over-The-Top (OTT) content services

BCM43556 (standalone 5G WiFi) and BCM43558 (combo with 5G WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0) are next
generation chips designed for PCs, digital TVs and set-top-boxes and feature the following:

o USB 3.0 support for more than two times data throughput than previous generations, plus power save modes to extend battery life
o Full compatibility with latest PC platforms, including Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8
o Seamless interoperability with 5G WiFi-based routers and 5G WiFi-based digital TV platforms

Availability

Broadcom's new 5G WiFi solutions are now sampling with early access customers, with full production expected in the second half of 2013.

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Man Animates Wife's Drunken Story About Tortilla Chips

By Neha Prakash2013-05-06 20:43:21 UTC

If there's ever been a PSA for not drinking and joking, it's this video.

Adam Patch's wife got a little too tipsy one night and turned, like most do, into a stand-up comedian. Her subject of choice? Tortilla-chip bullying. (No, folks, even we can't make this stuff up.)

Patch recorded his wife's nonsensical, pun-filled story and turned it into a darkly hilarious animated video that really shines a light on the chip-on-chip abuse.

No news yet if Patch's wife is regretting her drunken ramblings, or if Patch has been exiled to nights on the couch for turning her joke into viral Internet gold.

Image and video courtesy of Vimeo, Adam Patch

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Smart Money: Scientists Embed Radio Chips in Paper

Nic Halverson for Discovery News 2013-05-04 02:23:59 UTC

From hotel towels to soccer jerseys, just about everything seems to be tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips these days. Now scientists have developed a way to embed these chips in paper, which could pave the way for so-called smart money.

Developed by a team of researchers from North Dakota State University, the RFID-equipped smart paper could potentially be used in legal documents, tickets, package labels and banknotes. Researchers say the technology could help prevent fraud and counterfeiting.

While RFID-equipped paper already exists, other versions on the market rely on thicker chips, resulting in bulky and bumpy paper that can’t be printed. However, researchers at North Dakota State developed a process called Laser Enabled Advanced Packaging that creates ultra-thin silicon chips that can be seamlessly embedded in paper.

The process uses a plasma etcher to thin down the chips, then uses a laser beam pulse to insert the chips, as well as antennas, directly into the paper.

Project leader Val Marinov said the process is cheap than current manufacturing methods because less materials are being used and equipment is less expensive. Not only that, the process is twice as fast as other methods.

“About ten years ago the Bank of Japan and the European bank signaled their intention to develop such technology but they aren’t there yet,” Marinov told the BBC. “I believe our scheme is the first to demonstrate a functional RFID tag embedded in paper.”

Marinov and his team recently presented their work at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers conference on RFID in Orlando, Fla. They are currently seeking commercial investors.

“The technology needs to leave the lab and find a place in industry,” Marinov said.

Image via iStockphoto, imagestock

This article originally published at Discovery News here

Topics: electronic payments, Gadgets, money, RFID chip, Science, Tech Discovery News is a Mashable Publishing Partner.

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