Single chip baseband processors and MACs for WLAN

4 July 2001 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

The world's first integrated wireless baseband processor (BBP) and medium access controller (MAC) in a single-chip are now available in full production from Intersil. The new integrated BBP/MACs are ideal for compact embedded IEEE-802.11b WLAN applications in portable and mobile PCs, PDAs and other mobile communication devices using small form factor mini-PCI, CompactFlash, USB and single-sided PCMCIA WLAN cards.

These BBP/MACs integrate both mixed-signal and digital functions that previously required two ICs. Intersil says the integration saves significant board space, eliminates a large number of I/O pins and reduces board complexity, size and manufacturing cost. Improvements made in the architecture have also enabled the replacement of the expensive, large flash memory with a smaller less expensive EEPROM.

Two versions are available. For PCMCIA and USB applications, the ISL3873 BBP/MAC integrates the high performance of the existing HFA3863 baseband processor with the reliability of the HFA3842 CHOICE-based MAC. This results in improved multipath performance and supports wireless Ethernet speeds of 11 Mbps for use in IEEE-802.11b systems. It also features firmware configurable PCMCIA and USB interfaces that allows OEMs to easily add a USB interface to both standalone and IEEE-802.11b wireless networking products for the home and office. The ISL3874 BBP/MAC features a mini-PCI interface which effectively eliminates the need for an external PCMCIA to mini-PCI bridge chip in embedded applications.

This new BBP/MAC family also forms the heart of PRISM 2.5, Intersil's newest four-chip WLAN solution. The PRISM 2.5 solution includes ICs, software, firmware and a companion voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO).

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