Broadcom Unlocks Potential of 5G WiFi with Integrated SoCs for Home and SMB Networks

As video and media consumption continues to grow, 5G WiFi enabled devices and services will play a critical role in delivering reliability, higher capacity and faster throughput. Broadcom's new SoCs, the StrataGX series for SMB routers and network attached storage devices and the BCM4708x series for home routers and gateways, offer a complete end-to-end solution to enable stand-alone platforms to achieve the Gigabit wireless rates that 5G WiFi can deliver.

The resulting connectivity will enable multiple users in the home or office to simultaneously stream video content and high bandwidth application downloads 10x faster without the buffering and interruptions associated with current networks.

The new devices also feature Broadcom's Energy Efficient Ethernet functionality, delivering an additional 70 percent reduction in power consumption while networks are active and up to 95 percent during downtime, when two-thirds of energy costs are incurred.

Increased reliance on wireless networks, the explosion of video consumption, and growing number of wireless devices are all putting stress on legacy 802.11a/b/g/n networks. 5G WiFi addresses these challenges, enabling mobile device users to stream digital content between devices faster, and simultaneously connect more wireless devices to home and enterprise networks, while conserving battery power.

Key Features:
•High-performance 5G WiFi Gigabit connectivity to multiple consumer and SMB devices
•Acceleration engines optimized for 5G WiFi and over-the-top direct-from-provider video/audio content
•5x processing horsepower with increased CPU headroom enables new applications such as cloud services
•Rich peripheral set supports NFC, video/audio and network storage applications
•Integrated GbE PHY/switch and regulators enable flexible, scalable solution for multiple GbE router platforms
•USB 3.0 delivers up to 10x the transfer speed of USB 2.0 for high-speed storage

The StrataGX BCM5301x and the BCM4708x series are sampling with production release slated for the second half of 2012.

Ed Redmond, Broadcom Vice President & General Manager, Infrastructure and Networking Group
Broadcom is well known as an industry powerhouse in innovation and integration; our latest SoCs represent our unique ability to combine the best of IP from throughout the organization. The new StrataGX solutions enable SMB networks to reach new levels of performance in video applications such as video conferencing, and the new BCM4708 solutions enable consumer networks to reach unparalleled levels of video streaming. The overall result is the ability to share and stream more high-definition video with a higher quality experience than ever before.

Michael Hurlston, Broadcom Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobile and Wireless Group
Consumers increasingly expect to be able to access and watch video and other high-bandwidth content on their mobile devices throughout their homes, a capability that 5G WiFi enables better than any other Wi-Fi technology available on the market today. These highly-integrated SoC products will help ignite the mass market adoption of 5G WiFi and expand the ecosystem of devices capable of providing its benefits to home and SMB network users worldwide.

Philip Solis, Research Director, Mobile Devices, ABI Research
The ecosystem of the digital home and SMB networks is rapidly evolving as the use of high-bandwidth applications, adoption of new devices and need for wireless connectivity all increase concomitantly. The expectations of consumers and professionals will only continue to grow for wireless connectivity to match Ethernet speeds, while providers will need to meet traffic demands and lower energy requirements—both driving the development and adoption of this latest iteration of WiFi.

Broadcom will preview the technology at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan June 5-9.