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Wireless Networking

Broadcom Announces BCM4389 Wi-Fi 6E Client Chipset (anandtech.com) 13

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced the new Wi-Fi 6E terminology for 802.11ax operation in the 6 GHz band last month. At CES 2020, Broadcom announced a number of Wi-Fi 6E access point solutions. Today, Broadcom is announcing the BCM4389 client Wi-Fi 6E chipset. From a report: Consumers can expect to see the chipset in the next generation of high-end smartphones. We have already covered the advantages of Wi-Fi 6E in terms of lower latency, higher throughput, and the availability of more number of 160 MHz channels in our coverage of the Wi-Fi Alliance announcement at CES. The BCM4389 builds upon Broadcom's success with the BCM4375, which happens to be the currently leading client Wi-Fi 6 chipset in the smartphone market. In addition to the new 6 GHz support with tri-band simultaneous operation and 160 MHz channel support, the BCM4389 also brings in additional power efficiency, thanks to its 16nm process technology and architectural improvements.

The BCM4375 is a 28nm chipset with 2x2 2.4 GHz and 2x2 5 GHz support, while the new BCM4389 adds 2x2 6 GHz to the mix. The scanning radio accounts for the additional radio chain. The Bluetooth 5.0 functionality has also received a boost with MIMO support. Broadcom claims that the new implementation can reduce pairing time by a factor of 2 and also alleviate glitching issues when connected to Wi-Fi at the same time (compared to the BCM4375). The icing on the cake is that the MIMO support works with implicit beamforming ensuring that legacy Bluetooth devices stand to benefit too.

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Broadcom Announces BCM4389 Wi-Fi 6E Client Chipset

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  • The reduced power consumption going from BCM4375 in 28nm to BCM4389 in 16nm should be a big deal. 2.5A to 0.5A
  • Does this mean I should wait for the next generation of WiFi routers before I upgrade Ye Olde Archer C7? I'm currently jealously looking at a Plume setup, but I get the impression WiFi 6E mesh networking is going to be an order of magnitude better than WiFi 6 (and below) meshing...

    Now that Broadcom is selling a chipset, it's probably not too far out for vendors to start offering it in routers. Of course, I realize the devices will have to be 6E capable as well, but I'd like to lay out a good 'foundatio
  • by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Thursday February 13, 2020 @11:17AM (#59724144)

    Wasn't the whole point of the new terminology, to make names simper?

    I thought it was supposed to be Wifi 6, period.

    What will be next?

    Wifi 6EX S XFX Titan II Turbo?

    • They probably wanted to call it 6G, but well, that would be even more confusing than the current confusion between WiFi 5G and cellular 5G networks. To be honest I thought the article was going to be about 6G cellular, the similarities in the naming between the two is just that dumb at this point.

      -Can't wait for that 5G bluetooth.
    • by fintux ( 798480 )
      My thoughts exactly! Seems like they hired somebody from the USB-IF to work on the naming.

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