Debuting what it has dubbed a "phone on a chip" solution for next-generation wireless capabilities, Broadcom Corp. http://www.broadcom.com today announced a new single-chip high-speed packet access (HSPA) processor that the company claims integrates all of the key 3G cellular and mobile technologies on an extremely low power, single 65-nm CMOS die.

The relatively low price point of the device is aimed at bringing multi-media capable feature phones "to the masses," Yossi Cohen, senior vice president of Broadcom's mobile platforms group, said this morning in a webcast for investors and journalists. Cohen said that the BCM21551's debut comes more than year before similar products that are on the way from rival wireless communications chip developers.

According to Broadcom, the BCM21551 3G phone on a chip solution combines a high-speed HSUPA 3G baseband, a multi-band radio frequency (RF) transceiver, Bluetooth 2.1 with enhanced data rate technology, and an FM radio receiver and an FM radio transmitter for car stereo music playback. The device also features advanced multimedia processing, up to five megapixel camera support, and 30 frame per second video, as well as support for the HSUPA, HSDPA, WCDMA and EDGE cellular protocols. It can be paired with other Broadcom devices, such as Wi-Fi and GPS, PMU, or the new VideoCore III mobile multimedia processor.