Broadcom's Bluetonium chip to drive wireless headsets

Bluetooth technology is getting an expanded lease on life in the form of wireless stereo headsets that are said to offer superior audio fidelity and longer battery life in a single chip from Broadcom Corporation.

In a Monday announcement, Broadcom said the chip, which is sampling now, is the world's first Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) chip for stereo headsets. The Broadcom Blutonium BCM2037 contains a Bluetooth baseband and radio, making the chip the first headset-specific chip with EDR. The solution represents a tripling from 1 Megabits per second to 3 Megabits per second, enabling not only clear fidelity but significantly increased battery life.

"The chip is powered by an on-board ARM7 processor, providing a familiar software development environment that allows manufacturers to easily port software from one product to another," the firm stated. Production chips are expected in the third quarter.

Broadcom noted that the BCM2037 is based on technology resulting from the firm's recent acquisition of wireless audio specialist Zeevo.