WLANs, Bluetooth, And FM Radio Will Become Part Of Low-End Cell Phones, TI Says

Texas Instruments, which this week announced an integrated chip that will offer wireless local area network (WLAN), Bluetooth, and FM transmitter/receiver technology on a single chip, says its goal is to get the capabilities to the mass market. That means people with lower-end cell phones could take advantage of the latest wireless technologies, not only those using expensive smartphones.

TI's announcement came a week after Broadcom announced a similar triple-threat chip.

TI's new offerings include two products. WiLink 6.0 combines WLAN, Bluetooth, and FM, and supports the IEEE draft 802.11n standard to improve wireless coverage and reception. Once embedded into cell phones, the chip will enable people to share large files such as video and photos between cell phones and other WLAN-enabled devices, including laptops, digital cameras, and gaming consoles.

BlueLink 7.0 is the latest version of the chipmaker's Bluetooth single-chip family that combines Bluetooth and FM. With the new FM capability, people can listen to MP3 files stored on their cell phones on any FM receiver, even those in car stereos.

Texas Instruments says it has solved interference issues that often occur because WLANs and Bluetooth technology both use the 2.4 GHz frequency. That can cause problems, especially when the two technologies are present and close together in a mobile device. Instead of connecting Bluetooth and WLAN technologies through external pins, the single chip contains all the interfaces on one Media Access Control layer.

Combining three different radio cores in a single chip is a big challenge from a system design and cost perspective. "Others that have tried in the past either did not meet the technical requirements or did not intersect with market demand," says Amir Faintuch, business manager of TI's wireless personal area network (WPAN) and WLAN business. The company has been developing chips for Bluetooth and WLANs for almost seven years.

Now TI is set on getting the chips into lower-end cell phones. The mainstream mobile device market is primarily driven by cost, often dictated by the types of features and capabilities that are embedded into the devices. It won't cost extra for device makers to embed the WiLink or BlueLink chips into cell phones since they contain all the technologies on a single chip, says Faintuch. "These cost benefits should help drive these features to the mass market," he says.

TI won't disclose the names of mobile device makers that plan to use its chips, but says it's "highly engaged" with several. Cell phones with the chips are expected to debut next year.

Cell phones that can play music and connect to other personal devices via Bluetooth are quickly becoming popular among consumers. Sony Ericsson this week launched two new Walkman phones, the W880/W888 and W610, which come with features such as a Bluetooth receiver for streaming music through a home or car stereo, and FM radio.