How does a breakfast consisting of a big cup of coffee and some small chips sound? That's what Broadcom has given us this morning with the announcement of its BCM21892 4G LTE-Advanced modem, which is says is the smallest LTE-Advanced modem around. The 28nm BCM21892 is said to be around 35 percent smaller than its competition, meaning that manufacturers will have more space for other goodies inside their smartphones and tablets, and it's also said to save up to 25 percent of the power that's usually consumed during data transmissions.
Broadcom's BCM21892 packs support for a whole slew of features, including all 3GPP standards. That includes LTE FDD and TDD, LTE-Advanced with carrier aggregation (which allows carriers to combine frequency bands for faster LTE speeds), HSPA+, TD-SCDMA and EDGE/GSM. The BCM21892 can support LTE speeds of up to 150Mbps with 20MHz of spectrum or carrier aggregation and is also ready for use with Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for higher-definition voice calls, with Broadcom touting that its VoLTE service uses 40 percent less power than a comparable WCDMA call. Finally, Broadcom says that the BCM21892 can be paired with "a broad-range" of processors to give manufacturers some flexibility when crafting their new products.
Many manufacturers are focusing on device size as of late, and that appears to have been one of Broadcom's focuses with the BCM21892, as the company points out the modem's small size a couple of times in its announcement. Being 35 percent smaller than the competition is a good feature to have, though, as it makes room for other components inside a device or just allows for a product that's smaller overall. Meanwhile, the BCM21892's 25 percent power savings is something that I'm sure many smartphone owners would appreciate, as battery life always seems to be an issue in the world of mobile.
Broadcom says that it's currently sampling the BCM21892 and that full production is expected to happen in 2014. At least we've got the full announcement of the BCM21892 at the link below to keep us occupied until then.
Via Broadcom
