HP Mini 110 netbook goes pink and white, adds Broadcom's HD video acceleration

[Via PortableMonkey, thanks David]
broadcom posts





Well, that fast -- just a day after the Bluetooth SIG officially announced the new Bluetooth 3.0 specification, Broadcom's announced that its BCM4325 chip has been certified and is ready to go. As you'd expect from a chip that uses the new high-speed multi-protocol standard, the 4325 does WiFi as well as Bluetooth, with a dash of FM thrown in for good measure. Handshakes all around -- now let's get this thing in some devices, shall we?
Broadcom has seen quite a few legal victories in its ongoing battle with Qualcomm, but it was dealt a bit of a setback on Friday when U.S. District Court Judge William Hayes shot down one of its most recent lawsuits. Apparently, Broadcom wasn't quite specific enough about the patents it was suing over this time around, which is something Qualcomm has been complaining about as far back as November, saying at that time that Broadcam has failed "to specify a single device, a single patent, a single license, or a single sale." All is not lost for Broadcom, however, as it just so happens to have a separate lawsuit against Qualcomm pending at the very same district court. Not surprisingly, Broadcom also says that intends to refile the rejected lawsuit "within two weeks," while Qualcomm apparently plans to continue banging its head against a wall.
Phones have lagged -- understandably, we suppose -- behind desktops and laptops in bringing 802.11n to market, but it was bound to happen eventually; to that end, Broadcom has announced its BCM4329, one of the first mobile 802.11n solutions on the block. On top of delivering up to 50Mbps of real-world WiFi throughput on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the darned thing throws in Bluetooth, an FM receiver, and an FM transmitter, too -- in other words, everything but the kitchen sink, where the "kitchen sink" is the cellular radio itself. Sadly, the 4329 sticks with single-stream transmission to conserve battery life -- no MIMO here, folks -- but considering the 802.11g alternative, we'll take what we can get. The chip's already being sampled (and hopefully being integrated into future products) by Broadcom's customers with mass production following on sometime in 2009.
Skyhook's WiFi positioning service hasn't really appeared in many devices despite its high-profile usage in the iPhone, but now it looks like it's set to become downright ubiquitous -- Broadcom is planning on building it directly into its extremely popular WiFi chipsets. Just like Skyhook's deal with SiRF, the idea is to use WiFi positioning to supplement GPS in mobile devices, allowing location-based services to function indoors and in densely-built cities where GPS doesn't always work well. No word on when we might see any devices with Skyhook-enabled chips in them, but given Broadcom's reach in the market, we'd guess it won't be too long.









