Broadcom BCM21552G: Making $100 smartphones with 3G, GPS, and NFC possible

Braodcom has just announced a new system on chip called the BCM21552G that they say will let handset vendors create $100 smartphones that have 3G connectivity, GPS, and near field communication support. What components make up the BCM21552G? On the CPU side there’s a 1 GHz ARM11 processor, which isn’t the fastest thing on the planet, but it’s good enough for most folks. Take Nokia’s current Symbian lineup for example, they’re all running on an ARM11 platform. Now as for the graphics it’s a proprietary Broadcom solution that delivers VGA video capture/decade, support for an 8 megapixel camera, support for a WVGA screen, and it can render roughly 10 million triangles per second. The cellular connectivity provided goes up to 7.2 Mbps HSPA, and in terms of other radios you’re looking at support for Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11n, and there’s even an FM radio in there. It doesn’t stop there either, the BCM21552G natively supports dual SIM, which is mandatory for the Chinese and Indian markets.

“The ability to offer 1GHz processing and integrated graphics in an advanced 3G baseband enables our new smartphone platform to satisfy the user experience requirements handset makers are targeting at price points that mainstream phone buyers can afford. Broadcom is the first company to bring a 1GHz processor, GNSS and NFC to smartphones that retail for under $100.00, establishing itself as a leader in the growing low-cost smartphone market segment.” – Rafael Sotomayor, Vice President, Marketing, Mobile Platform Solutions

So we know the price, but what about the release date? That’s a good question that Broadcom sadly doesn’t answer, but if we had to take a guess we’d say that the industry standard lead time of one year will be in effect, meaning that somewhere around late Q4 2012 to early Q1 2013 we’ll see devices out on the market with the BCM21552G inside.

[Via: NFC World]