5G Wi-Fi

Broadcom unveils new 5G Wi-Fi chips for PCs, tablets, phones

Broadcom is ramping up more chips designed to support 5G Wi-Fi, aka 802.11ac.

The chipmaker today announced its first 5G Wi-Fi combo chips designed specifically for entry-level consumer devices, meaning PCs, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones. Combo chips offer Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM radio all in one package. This second generation of 5G Wi-Fi chips includes the same features as Broadcom's current lineup but integrates more components to keep costs down.

"This 1x1 design lowers cost while still delivering dramatic speed, power and performance, empowering a broad new user base to effortlessly stream HD video, and significantly increase … Read more

Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H revew: 802.11ac performance inconclusive

The Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H is the first 802.11ac (aka 5G Wi-Fi) router on the market, and Buffalo's WLI-H4-D1300 wireless media bridge is the first 802.11ac client. Since those are currently the only two 5G Wi-Fi devices, it was impossible to get a complete picture of the 802.11ac standard itself by testing them.

However, I was able to quite easily pair them together and experience the 802.11ac connection. Unfortunately, while the connection was very fast, it wasn't close to what the 802.11ac standard has to offer.… Read more

5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) explained: It's cool

Now that you can actually buy the first wireless networking products that use 802.11ac, Buffalo's router and media bridge, it's time you learned about the this new wireless standard. While the "ac" designation definitely does not mean "air conditioning," I can say for sure that 802.11ac is cool.

And by cool, I mean fast. That's the biggest difference about 802.11ac compared with previous wireless standards. But first let's see how similar it is.

802.11ac supplements 802.11n

802.11ac (aka 5G Wi-Fi) is the next step after 802.… Read more

Broadcom 802.11ac Wi-Fi chips hit CES 2012

Following a CES preview event last month, Broadcom today announced its first family of 802.11ac (also known as 5G Wi-Fi) chips, designed for a broad range of product segments.

The chipmaker says the new IEEE 802.11ac chips are three times faster and up to six times more efficient than equivalent existing 802.11n (known as Wi-Fi) solutions. This makes 5G Wi-Fi a major step up from the existing and popular 802.11a/b/g/n wireless solutions.

According to Broadcom, its 5G Wi-Fi chips will dramatically improve wireless range and data rates, allowing consumers to watch HD video, and transfer large amounts of data to and from more devices, in more places at once.

The fact that the chips make it possible to transmit a much larger amount of data than 802.11n devices in the same amount of time means that 5G Wi-Fi devices can enter low-power mode faster and more frequently, resulting in significant reductions in power consumption.… Read more