In the world of technology, it’s either move fast and be ahead, hurry along to catch up, or go out of business. The industry is highly competitive, and it’s usually the early bird that gets all the worms. A lot of operators are still testing out the waters with 4G, and already Broadcom has come up with the 5G WiFi chips.

Broadcom has announced its first family of chips that make use of the yet-to-be-ratified 5G WiFi standard, which is otherwise known as IEEE 802.11ac.

In a statement, Broadcom Mobile & Wireless honcho Michael Hurlston said: “The exponential growth of digital media and wirelessly connected devices requires faster and more reliable ways to connect anytime, anywhere. 5G WiFi solves this media explosion challenge.”

Take note that “5G” doesn’t mean that this is the fifth-generation WiFi chips, as was the case for 4G. However, the 5G part refers to the five-gigabit throughput of the chips. Broadcom points out that their new series of chips are more efficient in terms of power usage than the current WiFi circuits in use today.

Broadcom’s four new 802.11ac chips are able to provide a throughput from between 433Mbps for single stream interpretations. For three-streams, this value rises to 1.3Gbps. The firm also boasts that its chips will allow files to be transferred faster, citing in-home videos as one of its target markets for the 802.11ac.

Broadcom is still sampling the chips to its “early access partners including retail and PC OEMs, service providers and carriers.” These include firms like Netgear and Buffalo, who both have devices in the works that they will be exhibiting at the CES 2012.

Source - The Register

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