All-in-one chip cuts 11n costs

A new all-in-one Draft-N Wifi chip should bring the cost of wireless routers down – particularly dual-radio models that don't force you to operate in the crowded 2.4GHz band.

Few Draft-N home routers sold today support 5GHz, a situation PCW has highlighted as little short of scandalous as they can grab two out of the only three non-overlapping channels at 2.4GHz.

More than one vendor has told PCW that this is because dual-radio models, which also required dual power amplifiers, are too expensive.

But Gordon Lindsay, product manager of chip designer Broadcom's wireless devices division, said the difference in cost is not that great. " There are some regulatory differences between countries, France for instance. I really don't know why manufacturers have gone the way they have."

Broadcom says its BCM4322 chip, part of its Intensi-fi range, can cut the number of components required for 11n Wifi support by two thirds and reduce build costs by 40 percent.

It is said to be the first to combine an 802.11 medium access controller (MAC), a baseband processor, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios, multi-band power amplifiers and other WLAN components onto a single die.

It is also the first to be made to 65-nanometer scale, reducing power consumption compared with larger-scale devices.

Broadcom claims it can hit 200Mbit/sec of real throughput, well enough for high-definition video streaming. It conforms to the latest Draft N 2.0 spec, which Lindsay says is not expected to be significantly different from the eventual standard when it is ratified next year.

He reckons the new chip means a dual-radio device need cost manufacturers only $2 more than a single-radio one. Dual-radio is friendlier to neighbours because it does not hog channels at 2.4GHz; another advantage is that you can use 2.4GHz for legacy 11b/g devices and 5GHz for 11n operation.