bcm2049
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Broadcom announces Android support, three-pack of chips to make your phones more awesome
Chip maker Broadcom has unveiled no fewer than three new mobile-themed hunks of silicon this week in preparation for MWC in just a few days' time. You ready for this? Alright, first up we've got the catchily-named BCM20751, which performs the rather ordinary tasks of GPS, Bluetooth, and FM radio management but also throws in an audio processor to offload some work from the phone's primary CPU, which the company says can reduce battery consumption enough to improve playback time by up to 100 percent in some situations. Next up, we've got the BCM4751, a GPS receiver that Broadcom's confident is going to set a new benchmark for mobile location-based services; a complete setup takes less than 30 square millimeters of precious board space and is claimed to be a guru at picking up weak signals all the while sipping power. Finally, the BCM2049 supports Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, FM (both transmitting and receiving), and Bluetooth Low Energy -- something that was recently adopted for standardization in Bluetooth 4.0. All three should be on display at the show next week. That's not all, though -- the company is also announcing comprehensive support for Android across much of its product range, which seems like a pretty prudent business decision all things considered.
Broadcom packs Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and FM transceiver on 65nm combo chip
You can just tell from the wording in Broadcom's latest press release that it's still beaming from the late September court ruling involving it and Qualcomm, as we've never seen any one company so excited about a piece of silicon. The BCM2049 combo chip is built on 65-nanometer technology and combines Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and an FM transceiver in one convenient place. Obviously, the chip is being aimed at up and coming music phones, and it also features SmartAudio voice processing, Bluetooth audio streaming and an FM transmit function that will surely be next to worthless in mid- to large-size cities. Whoever made it onto Broadcom's early access list can get samples now, but you'll have to bypass the bouncer in order to get pricing.
