Qualcomm fills desktop connectivity holes

CELLULAR CHIPSET specialist, Qualcomm, has acquired Bluetooth and WiFi technologies to fill gaps in its wireless connectivity portfolio.

On the WiFi front it has acquired the specialist supplier, Airgo Networks, whilst on the Bluetooth front it has acquired technology from RFMD.

To date, Qualcomm has covered these two bases by pointing customers to other vendor's chips in its reference designs. These two moves will help to integrate such technologies much closer into its own products.

According to Henrico Salvatori, a vp with Qualcomm Communications Technologies Europe (QCTE), both Bluetooth and WiFi will be completely integrated into the company's modem chipsets.

Eventually with its future 8xxx modem chipset designs - codenamed SnapDragon - both Bluetooth and WiFi will be included in its standalone chipsets.

In the meantime with the existing 6xxx and forthcoming 7xxx designs, both Bluetooth and WiFi will remain as separate components.

The Airgo acquisition, however, is significant because it provides Qualcomm with an entry point into the latest WiFi technology - 802.11n.

That standard - whilst still at a draft stage - is crucial because it provides for high speed WiFi connexions - a technology which Intel is keen to promote for future laptop PC designs.

Qualcomm's motivation seems to be to drive its chipsets into all portable device sectors - into laptop PCs as well as wireless PDAs and mobile handsets. µ