Broadcom opens CES 2012 with 5th Gen WIFI Breakthrough - 802.11ac 433mbps chips

[caveman-jim]

Broadcom Launches First Gigabit Speed 802.11ac Chips - Opens 2012 CES with 5th Generation (5G) Wi-Fi Breakthrough
5G WiFi Offers Consumers the World's Fastest, Most Reliable Wireless Coverage for HD-Quality Video and Near Instantaneous Data Synch
Innovation Attracts Support from Industry Leaders - Comcast, Lenovo, Motorola, NETGEAR and Others

adcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced its first family of 802.11ac (5G WiFi) chips designed for a broad range of product segments. The new IEEE 802.11ac chips are three times faster and up to six times more power efficient than equivalent 802.11n solutions. Visit Experience Broadcom @ CES for more news, blogs and multi-media from CES and www.5GWiFi.org for more information on consumer advantages of 802.11ac.

5G WiFi is the next generation Wi-Fi standard required for today's mobile and video era. Based on 802.11ac, 5G WiFi is a major evolutionary step from the existing 802.11a/b/g/n networks. Broadcom's 5G WiFi dramatically improves the wireless range in the home, allowing consumers to watch HD-quality video from more devices, in more places, simultaneously. The increased speed enables consumers to download web content from a mobile device faster and quickly synch large files, such as videos, in a fraction of the time it would take on a similar 802.11n device. Since 5G WiFi transfers the same volume of data at a much faster rate, devices enter low-power mode faster, which results in significant power consumption advantages.

Read the full press release from Broadcom here.

[el barto]

This is great for small offices and home use with media servers. however, I think that for most people, the rate limiting step is their ISP.

[caveman-jim]

Everybody will be limited by their ISP, that's not the point. Wifi bandwidth is shared between all connections, not per connection, so the bigger the pie the more each person gets. Connect 2 laptops, 3 smartphones, a tablet, a wii, a ps3 and an xbox 360, and two computers and see how long everybody is happy with a wireless n access point. Not long, in my experience.