Broadcom boasts first 11n kit

Rivalry between Wi-Fi chip providers reached new levels of confusion at 3GSM when Broadcom announced unofficially that it had the first chips to truly implement the next-generation IEEE 802.11n standard, which is still only in draft form. The announcement by chief technology officer Henry Samueli came during an impressive round of Broadcom product releases, including a new modular mobile platform called Cellairity.

Technology analysts had warned companies to be cautious of buying products claiming to be 11n before the standard is ratified. But Samueli denied Broadcom was jumping the gun. He claimed: ‘The spec is all but nailed down, and we can be 99 per cent certain our implementation is the one that the IEEE will go with, and will be what the Wifi standard for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) will become.’

His statement follows a year of obscure political wrangling among industry groups anxious to get their own pet design approved as the 11n standard. The argument became more heated after Airgo predicted that its technology would be adopted. The conflict continued when tests by a US website claimed an Airgo-based ‘pre-11n’ Netgear RM240 router could quash legacy 11g signals when using channel 6.