The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Broadcom fries up '5G' Wi-Fi chips to chuck in your connected car

Supports 802.11ac and Bluetooth LE

Email delivery: Hate phishing emails? You'll love DMARC

Broadcom's latest chippery supports 802.11ac and Bluetooth LE too – which the company reckons is good enough to warrant calling it "5G" and snatching a chunk of the automotive market.

The claim comes because of the Wi-Fi support, which has a theoretical top speed of 1Gb/sec, and despite the fact that this number was once the criteria for "4G" technologies (since scaled back to allow LTE and WiMAX use the term).

But despite the hyperbolic naming, the new silicon does bring an impressive range of standards to a single die.

As well as the requisite Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards, the latter incorporating LE so it can sync with one's running shoes, the new chips support Miracast (screen echo) and Passpoint (automated hotspot logon) out of the box – and beamforming (directional radio) too.

Which will be lovely when they drop into a Macbook, but Broadcom would like to focus on what its connectivity can offer the automotive market, which is poised to fill our cars with chips of all sorts over the next year or two.

By 2015, all cars sold in Europe will have to have network connectivity, and once fitted it would be churlish not to use it. Manufacturers are looking at GM's OnStar and FordSync and wondering how they can generate monthly revenue from customers who used to only pay them once.

Broadcom reckons that by 2025 every car will have embedded connectivity, though that prediction comes from the GSMA [PDF], which as a consortium of big mobile operators is hardly impartial.

But however many vehicles it is, they'll need more than just a radio connection to value-add - Broadcom sees the car as a mobile hotspot for its passengers, and wants to help car makers realise that dream. ®

Supercharge your infrastructure

Whitepapers

5 ways to reduce advertising network latency
Implementing the tactics laid out in this whitepaper can help reduce your overall advertising network latency.
Reg Reader Research: SaaS based Email and Office Productivity Tools
Read this Reg reader report which provides advice and guidance for SMBs towards the use of SaaS based email and Office productivity tools.
Email delivery: 4 steps to get more email to the inbox
This whitepaper lists some steps and information that will give you the best opportunity to achieve an amazing sender reputation.
High Performance for All
While HPC is not new, it has traditionally been seen as a specialist area – is it now geared up to meet more mainstream requirements?
5 ways to prepare your advertising infrastructure for disaster
Being prepared allows your brand to greatly improve your advertising infrastructure performance and reliability that, in the end, will boost confidence in your brand.

More from The Register

next story
EE still has fastest, fattest 4G pipe in London's M25 ring
RootMetrics unfurls crowd-sourced 4G coverage map
Report says PRISM snooped on India's space, nuclear programs
New Snowden doc details extensive NSA surveillance of 'ally' India
Highways Agency tracks Brits' every move by their mobes: THE TRUTH
We better go back to just scanning everyone's number-plates, then?
Google tentacle slips over YouTube comments: Now YOUR MUM is at the top
Ad giant tries to dab some polish on the cesspit of the internet
Reg readers! You've got 100 MILLION QUID - what would you BLOW it on?
Because Ofcom wants to know what to do with its lolly
Google says it's sorry for Monday's hours-long Gmail delays
Dual networking outage won't happen again, honest
T-Mobile US exec mulls merger with rival Sprint
Only a larger company can take on Verizon, AT&T, moneyman says
prev story