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We’ve been waiting for the 802.11n successor to arrive, and today Broadcom finally made it official. The global semiconductor company announced the first series of IEEE 802.11ac chips based on the 5th generation of Wi-Fi technology. This 5G Wi-Fi, which should not be confused with cellular 3G or 4G, is three times faster and six times more power efficient than its 802.11n counterparts.
Broadcom will kick off its 5G products with the PCIe-based BCM4360, a chip that’ll attain speeds up to 1.3 Gbps. It’s also releasing the USB-based BCM43526 and another PCIe model (BCM4352 ) that’ll offer 867 Mbps. At the low end is the BCM43516, a USB model that’ll reach 433 Mbps. Not only are they fast, these chips are also small (40 nm) and work with all legacy 802.11 standards. Broadcom has already sent samples to manufacturing partners like Motorola, Microsoft, Netgear, LG, and others for testing and product development. The company will also demonstrate this technology at CES.
[Via Broadcomm; Photo from Shutterstock]
About The Author
Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly spent the last four years covering mobile technology at places like BGR, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Before writing, she spent a few years working with and teaching others how to use Adobe Flash and Macromedia Director. Even earlier than that, she spent several years as a Ph.D student in Microbiology. When she's not writing, she can be found fishing the lakes and hiking the mountains of Western Maine with her husband and tribe of children. You can follow her on Twitter @kellyhodgkins.
