BRCM: Broadcom Announces a Complete Portfolio of New Solutions for Bluetooth Wireless Headsets

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced a new advanced silicon and software platform that significantly improves the user experience of wireless mono and stereo headsets. Based on Broadcom's field-proven Bluetooth® technology, the audio portfolio features two new single-chip solutions that support Bluetooth Version 2.0 with EDR (upgradeable to Bluetooth Version 2.1) and Broadcom's innovative SmartAudio™ sound enhancement technology. Targeting the greater than 80 million unit Bluetooth headset market(1), the new Broadcom® solutions enables the development of complete lines of high- and low-end headsets with sleek form factors, longer battery life and an improved audio experience.
"This new product targets the second largest application in the Bluetooth market and it provides an opportunity to drive further growth within this segment," said Celeste Crystal, Senior Research Analyst, Semiconductors at IDC. "As Bluetooth headsets continue to grow in popularity, form factor and sound quality will continue to convince consumers of the benefits of the wireless hands-free experience."

Previously existing Bluetooth headset silicon solutions suffered from inconsistent radio performance and inadequate power management, as well as excessive external circuitry and bulky batteries, while providing a disappointing audio experience (unless supplemented with complex and expensive external components). These limitations often resulted in unsatisfying headset size, weight, style and sound quality.

To address these shortcomings, Broadcom today announced its all-new Bluetooth audio portfolio that features two new chips optimized for high-end and basic headsets (the BCM2047 and BCM2044), its new SmartAudio voice clarity technology, and a specially tuned version of Broadcom's BTE Bluetooth software. Broadcom's mature Bluetooth technology has shipped in hundreds of millions of units and includes the highest performing radio and baseband technology, which resists interference from other devices and "blocking" by the human body that results in degraded radio performance. The power-efficient architecture extends talk and standby time and features many levels of software programmability with an ARM® architecture and tools to enable unique features for product differentiation.

"To achieve this breakthrough in audio clarity and quality, we've leveraged unique technologies from our deep communications portfolio, which, coupled with our considerable expertise in Bluetooth, has resulted in a powerful new platform that addresses existing audio headset deficiencies," said Scott Bibaud, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Wireless Personal Area Networking line of business. "By enabling smaller form factors, longer battery-life and significantly improved audio performance with the most cost effective bill of materials, Broadcom is enabling breakthrough wireless headsets and audio products."

DSP-Enhanced Solution for Premium Sound Quality

Broadcom's BCM2047 includes the industry's most powerful multi-core architecture for Bluetooth audio products enabling premium headset products. This device features unparalleled integration to achieve a truly single-chip headset, featuring an integrated digital signal processor (DSP) for premium sound quality. The audio processing capabilities of the BCM2047 are powered by an ARM® AudioDE™ data engine - a high-performance, industry standard DSP. With sufficient performance to easily handle stereo and audio, compression algorithms (i.e. SBC, MP3 and AAC), the DSP architecture is optimized for Broadcom's SmartAudio technology to achieve superior voice quality delivering a superior user experience for headset prodcuts.

Cost-Optimized ROM-Based Alternative

For basic audio headsets that don't require extensive feature programmability, the BCM2044 is an ideal choice. This ROM-based, single-chip Bluetooth device includes many of the benefits of the BCM2047 at significantly lower cost. Featuring the same low-power Bluetooth radio and high quality audio architecture as the BCM2047, the BCM2044 also integrates a full feature power management unit including comprehensive safety circuitry. The BCM2044 enables low cost headsets with the same range and power management capabilities as those based on the BCM2047, with no compromise in audio quality.

SmartAudio Voice Enhancement Technology

Broadcom's new audio platform features SmartAudio technology, a proprietary sound and voice enhancement technology that provides breakthrough performance, significantly improves audio quality in noisy environments by reducing background noise by 95%, and enables unique form factor designs with minimal unwanted acoustic echo. The platform also includes Broadcom's new BTE Audio software stack optimized for audio applications. Because the BTE Audio stack is derived from the widely used BTE-Mobile and BTW stacks in mobile phones and PCs, interoperability with Bluetooth audio sources is well proven and widely tested for interoperability. Broadcom also offers the easy to use BTE Insight Tool for Audio Software Development Environment, allowing customers to get to market quickly with added differentiation. The software features portability between the BCM2047 and BCM2044 chips, enabling developers to leverage software development across different products.

Availability and Pricing

Broadcom's new audio portfolio is now sampling to early access customers. The new platform also features development kits and reference designs. Demonstrations of the technology were held at the recent CES show and will appear at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress.



(1) IMS Research estimate for 2007