NXP rolls out new SoC portfolio to bring wi-fi 6 to a wider market
NXP on Tuesday announced a portfolio of new SoCs (system on chip) that support wi-fi 6, promising to bring the benefits of the next generation of wi-fi to a wider range of products. The portfolio includes products designed for enterprise and retail access points, service provider and carrier gateways, connected cars, gaming, security camera imaging, and video and audio streaming.
Wi-fi 6 is four to 10 times faster than wi-fi 5, and it uses less energy. It can also efficiently connect as many as eight devices at once, compared to four with the previous generation. So far, adoption of the standard has been driven largely by smartphones, but it's expected to facilitate the growth in the number of connected devices in the coming years.
In the US, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to open up the 6 GHz spectrum band to unlicensed use, helping to make wi-fi more accessible for a range of devices.
The new NXP portfolio includes:
- 4x4 and 8x8-stream SoCs with integrated Bluetooth 5 for home and enterprise access solutions (88W9064, 88W9068)
- Concurrent Dual wi-fi 2x2+2x2 + Bluetooth 5 AEC-Q100 qualified solutions purpose-built for automotive products -- specifically, high-performance infotainment and telematics applications (88Q9098)
- Concurrent Dual Wi-Fi 2x2+2x2 + Bluetooth 5 SoCs for multimedia streaming and consumer access applications (88W9098)
- IoT-focused 2x2 WiFi 6 + Bluetooth 5 optimized for cost and power
- RF front-end solutions portfolio based on Silicon Germanium (SiGe) to scale wi-fi 6 capabilities from low-to-high-end applications