News Broadcom Updates Wi-Fi 7 Portfolio

[RMerlin]

First Gen products aren't even on st ore shelves yet, and already we have a second gen hardware coming out, aimed at lower end/less expensive products.

Broadcom Updates Wi-Fi 7 Portfolio with Lower Cost Second Generation Silicon

www.anandtech.com

 

[L&LD]

Sooner than I expected, but similar to what I've already commented about.

1st Gen products are not worth buying, if the plan is to keep them for years.

 

[sfx2000]

BCM47722 enterprise WiFi access point SoC specifications and key features

• CPU – Quad-core ARMv8 CPU with 10Gbps Ethernet PHY
• Wireless
  • WiFi 7
    • Dual 2×2 tri-band (2.4, 5, and 6 GHz) capable radios that support simultaneous operation in any band
    • Integrated 2.4 GHz power amplifiers and support for Digital Pre-distortion (DPD) external FEMs for reduced power consumption
    • 4096-QAM modulation and 320 MHz channel bandwidth for 8.64 Gbps PHY rate
    • Multi-link operation (MLO) with up to 3-link support on SoC and SpeedBooster support
  • Integrated dual radio Bluetooth Low-Energy, Thread, and Zigbee Support
  • Compliance with Wi-Fi 7 and Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) specifications, as well as the Bluetooth 5.4 standard and future draft specifications such as Channel Sounding for location services (HADM = High Accuracy Distance Measurement)

 

[sfx2000]

Interesting that they're all 2*2 radios for the WiFi...

The one I highlighted above - that's the interesting one with the BLE/Thread/Zigbee support - this is something I could expect to see a lot of the carrier provided equipment to use, and perhaps even on the mid-high end consumer devices.

Done right, and it could be a very handy device for the smart home integration, e.g. HomeKit, Matter, GoogleHome, etc...

 

[RMerlin]

Interesting that they're all 2*2 radios for the WiFi...

They're intended to be lower cost versions of the first gen products. Like the BCM675x was the low end version of the BCM4908 + BCM43684/BCM63xxx combo.

Done right, and it could be a very handy device for the smart home integration, e.g. HomeKit, Matter, GoogleHome, etc...

BT is used by Mesh products (like Asus's XT line) to facilitate the initial pairing.

 

[sfx2000]

BT is used by Mesh products (like Asus's XT line) to facilitate the initial pairing.

Sure, that's possible - that can be handled by a discrete BT radio - these are relatively cheap, and can interface with the main SoC via SPI, i2c, or UART.

This SoC has a lot more integration at first glance... I'm seeing it more as a service provider enabler for managed smart home services - as a thread border router bridging the thread/ble radios...

This variant likely was not done on speculation, but rather to a specification based on a customer ask - and that customer being a service provider.