Broadcom, the semiconductor solution provider for wired and wireless communications, demonstrated the chip at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. The Broadcom BCM2048 solution enables manufacturers to easily add FM radio and wireless stereo capabilities with a single-chip, providing a cost savings of up to 40 per cent and requiring only a third of the board space of existing solutions based on discrete components, states an official release.

Broadcom's Bluetooth business general manager Scott Bibaud said, "With this chip, we've combined two of the key technologies that mobile device makers are most interested in integrating into their products, enabling our partners to maintain leadership in cutting-edge features in a cost-effective and size-efficient manner."

"Our new BCM2048 Bluetooth chip removes many of the barriers to adding FM radio into a mobile phone, an important development especially for Europe where FM is rapidly becoming a popular feature in mobile handsets." adds Bibaud.

Based on Broadcom's proven BCM2045 Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) Bluetooth chip, the BCM2048 supports all of the key features of Version 2.0 of the Bluetooth specification, with capability to support the forthcoming Version 2.1 as well. The Bluetooth radio offers superior receive sensitivity and employs proprietary adaptive radio techniques designed to provide an optimized user experience with greater range and less interference from other devices, an essential requirement for wireless audio applications such as stereo headsets.

The BCM20248 includes all the FM features one would look for in an advanced FM radio product, including high receiver sensitivity, station information enhancements through intelligent Radio Data Service (RDS) and Radio Broadcast Data Service (RBDS) processing, and superior tuning and station search functions.

The integration of both Bluetooth and FM radio technologies in a single chip provides the smallest footprint in the industry for these combined functions, requiring significantly less board area for space-conscious mobile device developers. In addition to reduced board space, the BCM2048 also provides combined Bluetooth/FM functionality at lower power consumption rates than implementations that utilize discrete components. By integrating passive electronic components that competitive solutions require, the Broadcom chip also reduces cost.

The new chip also enables simultaneous operation of the Bluetooth and FM radios without any interference between them, a feat enabled by Broadcom's expertise in mixed signal engineering and advanced interference mitigation techniques.

FM radio is one of the multimedia features currently gaining momentum with manufacturers and carriers with market researcher iSuppli projecting that 332 million handsets will include FM radio by 2009. Broadcom's chip is available to manufacturers who want to check out the product.