Highly Integrated 65nm Combination Chip Enables Location Based Services (LBS),
On-Board Multimedia Processing and the Industry's Lowest GPS Power Consumption
IRVINE, Calif. - February 9, 2009 - Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today extends its leading combination (combo) chip portfolio with a highly integrated global positioning system (GPS), Bluetooth® and FM radio solution that delivers location based services (LBS) and advanced multimedia in a single-chip design. This sophisticated connectivity processor significantly reduces the host and application processing required by competing combo solutions, enabling greater adoption in mass market handsets.
The Broadcom® BCM2075 combo chip integrates four radios (Bluetooth, GPS and FM receive and transmit), and in conjunction with its unique InConcert® collaborative co-existence technology, allows these radios to operate simultaneously, and with minimal interference, providing a compelling user experience. Broadcom will demonstrate this new combo chip solution at next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
"The success of our combo chips highlights the individual strengths of our Bluetooth, GPS and FM connectivity technologies and advanced combo architectures that enable these advanced solutions to work well together on the same silicon die," said Robert A. Rango, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom's Wireless Connectivity Group. "Our new BCM2075 combo chip will help drive the key handset applications that network operators and consumers are looking to adopt, making location based services and advanced multimedia available on a wider range of mid-range mobile phones."
iSuppli market research expects GPS to grow significantly as a handset feature by 2012, to over 543 million units, with Bluetooth achieving more than 1.2 billion units and FM radio appearing in 901 million units in that same timeframe. By providing market proven implementations of all these technologies on a single combo device that saves power and size, Broadcom seeks to help drive these adoption rates in next generation handset products.
Technology Details
The BCM2075 is a cost effective solution for portable devices, such as mobile handsets, portable media players (PMPs) and personal navigation devices (PNDs), that wish to integrate Bluetooth, GPS and FM transceiver functionality and is backwards compatible with Broadcom's BCM2049 combo chip announced in October 2008. It includes an ARM CortexTM-M3 processor that provides low power consumption for optimum connectivity operation and effective multimedia processing resulting in longer handset battery life. Supported by Broadcom's World Wide Reference Network (WWRN) for accurate indoor and outdoor positioning, the BCM2075 enables advanced LBS, regardless of user location.
The Bluetooth core is architected for high functionality and low power requirements, and is fully compliant with version 2.1 and enhanced data rate (EDR) technology. It features SmartAudi® voice enhancement technology, which significantly improves the audio quality and the range of headset connections and includes Broadcom's unique packet loss concealment (PLC) and wide-band speech technologies that compensate for lost data packets while delivering clearer digital voice communications.
In conjunction with Broadcom's BTE-Mobile, Windows Mobile®, and Android software stacks, the BCM2075 supports multiple simultaneous Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (AADP) streams, enabling music sharing between multiple stereo Bluetooth headsets, creating a wireless networked music environment. Additionally, the BCM2075 contains on-chip processing for the most popular multimedia codecs including MP3, ADC and AAC/AAC+ that allows the host to offload 90% of this processing to the BCM2075, further increasing battery life.
The BCM2075 includes all the FM receiver features required for an advanced FM radio product including high receiver sensitivity with a 3dB improvement over previous Broadcom products, station information enhancements through intelligent Radio Data Service (RDS) and Radio Broadcast Data Service (RBDS) processing, and superior tuning and station search functions for worldwide frequency bands from 65 to 108MHz. The combo chip's feature-rich FM transmitter supports programmable output power and a sophisticated algorithm that recommends the best transmit frequency for the user to broadcast to his or her car radio or home FM receiver. The FM transceiver supports both small form factor FM antennas that can be integrated within the handset or traditional external headset wires.
The GPS core of the BCM2075 uses a host-based integration architecture that splits the processing duties between the BCM2075 and the host CPU system and provides the lowest power GPS available, delivering 50% better power performance when compared with today's leading solutions on the market. Benefiting from almost 10 years of internal software development, Broadcom's GPS technology enables the fastest time-to-first-fix (TTFF) and provides integrated support for other positioning technologies (such as Wi-Fi® positioning), and a robust and proven user experience.
Availability and Pricing
The BCM2075 GPS/Bluetooth/FM combination chip is now sampling to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request.
Green by Design
Broadcom and its foundry partners are leveraging today's most advanced lithographic node for manufacturing semiconductors. By designing solutions in 65nm process technology, Broadcom is able to provide significant environmental benefits over competitive solutions in 90nm and 130nm processes by enabling lower power consumption, smaller size and higher yields while providing higher levels of integration that result in fewer components. Additionally, Broadcom supports the current industry initiatives to remove lead (Pb) and other hazardous materials, such as halogens like bromide and chlorine, from all products. With the depth and breadth of Broadcom's advanced portfolio of market-proven IP, the company is able to drive innovative new products to market while reducing the impact on human health and the environment.
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2008 revenue of $4.66 billion, and holds over 3,100 U.S. and over 1,400 foreign patents, more than 7,600 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com [1].
Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the demand for wireless combination chip products, our position in that market, the impact of our products on human health and the environment and the timing of volume production for BCM2075 GPS/Bluetooth/FM combination chip solutions. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with BCM2075 GPS/Bluetooth/FM combination chip solutions include, but are not limited to
Additional factors that may cause Broadcom's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the list that can be found at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q12009.php [2].
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement, except as required by law.
Broadcom, the pulse logo, Connecting everything, the Connecting everything log, InConcert and SmartAudio® are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. BluetoothÒ is a trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc. Wi-FiÒ is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Windows Mobile® is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. ARM CortexTM-M3 is a trademark of ARM Limited. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Links:
[1] http://www.broadcom.com/
[2] http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q12009.php