Broadcom Announces Industry's First Dual-Band Wi-Fi Audio Chip for Internet of Things

New WICED SoC Improves Reception for HD Audio Streaming over Wi-Fi Networks

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Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Wireless and Connectivity

Dec 04, 2014, 08:00 ET

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights:

Enables multi-room experience on same network with advanced timing synchronization
Includes support for Apple AirPlay™
Reduces cost for OEMs with fully integrated SoC and expands opportunities in home audio market

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced the industry's first dual-band Wi-Fi audio chip into its Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED™) portfolio. The new system-on-a-chip (SoC) delivers high-definition (HD) audio streaming over a Wi-Fi network to wireless audio devices and minimizes interference for premium sound quality. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.

Broadcom's BCM43907 SoC reduces cost for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by integrating all needed functionality onto a single device. As the first audio SoC to implement dual-band Wi-Fi, Broadcom's BCM43907 reduces interference and delivers a cleaner overall sound to wireless streaming devices such as portable speakers, 5.1 multi-speaker systems, sound bars and media players. Devices with dual-band Wi-Fi experience fewer interruptions and benefit from a significant network performance boost by operating on two bands.

In addition, advanced radio frequency (RF) and timing synchronization enables the same content to be streamed over multiple speakers in different rooms in the home with no echo or lag time. This allows consumers to stream a variety of content to different speakers from the same device. A consumer for example can use Bluetooth to listen to a radio station from their smartphone in one room of the home while simultaneously streaming music to a portable speaker in another room, all using the same device and Wi-Fi network.

"The significant improvement in sound quality of HD audio streaming over W-Fi versus proprietary short range technologies is creating opportunities for a wide variety of new wireless streaming devices," said Brian Bedrosian, Broadcom Senior Director, Product Marketing, Wireless Connectivity Combos. "Broadcom's standards-based, fully integrated WICED Audio SoC offers companies of all sizes the ideal platform to design both high-end and cost-effective Wi-Fi audio products."

The Broadcom® BCM43907 offers pre-integrated Apple Airplay support with direct access to Broadcom's WICED Audio software development kit (SDK), expanding opportunities for developers and OEMs designing products that stream audio content from the home network or mobile devices.

Key Features of the WICED Audio SoC:

Industry's first dual-band Wi-Fi audio SoC
Offers support for Apple AirPlay™ to enable media streaming from iOS devices
Extends 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity to audio speakers
Integrates WICED Audio SDK for a variety of HD audio applications
Delivers low-power 1x1 802.11n WLAN SoC to OEMs
Includes on-chip 320MHz ARM^®Cortex^®-R4 applications CPU for audio speaker market
CPU includes 32KB each of instruction and data caches, along with 2MB of TCM RAM
Offers DDR3L memory and Q-SPI Serial flash interfaces for applications and streaming content buffering

Availability
The Broadcom WICED Audio SoC is now sampling with early access customers.

For ongoing news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom, read the B-Connected Blog, or visit Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to Broadcom's RSS Feed.

About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Broadcom^®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo and WICED™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

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