While the 802.11ac standard has started making its way to high end smartphones, they’ve been somewhat gimped compared to more full featured solutions. The new Broadcom BCM4354 SoC is all set to change that as it brings the first 5G 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO system on chip for smartphones. This is an improvement over the 1×1 MIMO devices used by current smartphones. As a side benefit, power efficiency will go up by 25 percent.
Improvements:
- Doubles throughput for faster video and music downloads
- Improves power efficiency up to 25 percent when using Wi-Fi over 1×1 MIMO solutions
- Increases wireless coverage up to 30 percent compared to current deployments
The 2×2 MIMO system will double the throughput and enable speeds of upto 867Mbps while also bringing a tangible increase in coverage by up to 30 percent. The BCM4354 is an improvement over current solutions that employ multiple antennas and hence reduces implementation complexity for designers. The reduced size and power efficiency plays a major role in bringing 2×2 MIMO to smartphones.
Features:
- 867 Mbps PHY rate/80MHz channel bandwidth
- SDIO 3.0 and low-power PCIe host interfaces for WLAN; UART and USB for BT
- Android, Windows and Chrome-based operating systems support
- Low Density Parity Check Codes (LDPC), Space Time Block Coding (STBC), TurboQAM™ and high-accuracy indoor location
- Dual Band combo chip with support for 5G 2×2 MIMO WiFi, BT 4.1/BLE, Rezence charging, FM radio
An interesting addition to the BCM4354 SoC is support for the A4WP standard pioneered by Rezence. The latest standard for Wireless charging that let’s you place your phone in any orientation over the charging plate. The Rezence standard supports Android, Windows and Chrome based devices.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIRLmcA-2QM
Additionally, you also get the latest in Transmit Beamforming that allegedly improves range & transfer rates in congested environments. Expect to see BCM4354 based devices soon as the SoC is now in production.