Broadcom introduced its latest set of Wi-Fi 8 chips and an optimized 10 Gb/s (10G) passive optical network (PON) chip as it continues to furrow into the nascent standard.

The new BCM67142 and BCM67192 offerings build on last year's BCM6714 and BCM6719 releases, and are targeted at the residential Wi-Fi 8 market. The new chips integrate the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz radios in one silicon die for a smaller footprint, leveraging the host central processing unit (CPU) in Broadcom's new BCM68565 10G PON gateway system-on-chip (SoC).

That new 10G PON SoC is designed for mass-market fiber broadband deployments and includes a fiber WAN interface supporting 10G symmetrical PON (XGS-PON), gigabit passive optical network (GPON), and active Ethernet modes. XGS-PON utilizes a point-to-multipoint infrastructure to transmit data from a centralized source to multiple endpoints across optical splitters and represents the current high-end standard for PON.

Broadcom also touted a high-performance CPU complex with support for open source middleware, with the complex freed by a dedicated network processing engine for operator-specific utilities and applications. The chip also carries integrated multigigabit and gigabit Ethernet physical layers (PHYs) and support for various memory iterations like DDR4 and LPDDR4.

"With our latest Wi-Fi 8 and PON products, Broadcom is making 'ultra-high reliability' accessible in hyper-competitive broadband markets," Mark Gonikberg, SVP and GM of Broadcom’s Wireless and Broadband Communications Division, noted. "The highly-optimized, single-chip, dual-band radios and a cost-optimized PON SoC catalyze the adoption of Wi-Fi 8 in high-volume markets, ensuring faster, more reliable, and affordable wireless broadband for the global consumer."

Broadcom’s latest offerings capitalize on its recent claim of offering “industry first” Wi-Fi 8-ready silicon solutions. That release included the BCM6718 for residential and operator access applications; the edge wireless-focused BCM43109; and the BCM43840 and BCM43820, which Broadcom said were tailored for enterprise access applications.

The line was further expanded earlier this year with the release of the BCM49438 accelerated processing unit (APU) and the Trident X3+ BCM56390 Ethernet switch, with its capacity for 48 multigigabit ports making the switch reportedly suitable for high-density Wi-Fi 8 deployments.

All the releases are said to be compliant with the forthcoming IEEE 802.11bn networking standard, which is more commonly known as Wi-Fi 8. Astatus page on the IEEE website indicates that the long-gestating standard is not expected to receive final approval until 2028.

That hasn’t stopped Broadcom from claiming that fiber gateway platforms based on its BCM68565, BCM67142, and BCM67192 solutions “accelerate the adoption of Wi-Fi 8 globally and raise the bar for service providers in competitive broadband markets.”

Broadcom also has one foot in the future having recently released its BroadPeak radio digital front-end (DFE) SoC device it claims paves the way for 6G wireless infrastructure. The chip reportedly delivers up to 40% power reduction over existing solutions for massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) and remote radio head (RRH) applications, with a wider operating frequency range from 400 MHz up to 8.5 GHz.