Broadcom brings 802.11ac to smartphones and tablets

802.11ac is currently the hottest thing in WiFi, with nearly all manufacturers having announced or actually shipped routers packing the high bandwidth technology. But to date the only way to actually run an 802.11ac connection was between two routers, as there are still no adapters or devices packing the new tech.

This situation is coming to an end though, there is already a chip on the way designed for PCs and laptops and now Broadcom has announced its BCM4335 client chip. This is a piece of 40nm silicon with 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4 and FM Radio built in. It is designed primarily for smartphones and tablets, although we are yet to hear of any manufacturers actually using it.

Depressingly Broadcom is persisting with its 5G WiFi naming for the chip, despite the fact this is the product that will sit alongside 4G Cellular radios. It will be fascinating to see whether any third party manufacturers run with Broadcom’s naming, but we likely won’t know until early next year when hardware is expected to ship.