Broadcom taps NFC as another entry point into Internet of Things
Broadcom is expanding its StrataGX family with some new ARM-based technology headed for mobile point-of-sale terminals.
Currently only available for sampling, the BCM58100 line of ARM Cortex M3-based microcontrollers are designed to protect consumer data at physical and network layers while also promising to reduce power demands and costs for mobile device manufacturers.
Mobile and e-commerce are the most obvious use cases on the surface as Broadcom is touting support for near-field communications (NFC) technology as well as EMV (a.k.a. chip and pin) smartcard and magstripe (MSR) readers.
But there are many more Internet of Things-minded opportunities at play here as the BCM58100 family is built for small connected devices in general, opening up potential for integration on home automation products and security systems.
Broadcom noted the BCM58100 technology will be delivered in tiny form factors of 10 x 10 millimeters.
The new portfolio follows up this month's debut of Broadcom's Open Network Switch Library (OpenNSL) aimed toward networking OEMs and operators, device manufacturers and independent software vendors.
The software platform consists of API documentation mapping out Broadcom's software development kit (SDK) as well as a developer's guide and sample code for building software and hardware integrations. Suggested use cases include load balancing, service chaining and workload optimization.
Earlier this year at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in January, the semiconductor maker unveiled what it touted as the world's fastest 4x4 MU-MIMO processor, designed for boosting the delivery of video streaming to connected devices.
Broadcom said the BCM4366 SoC was crafted with premium wireless performance in mind. More specifically, that means embedding on consumer routers, set-top boxes and other wireless gateways capable of sending HD and broadcast-quality video over a wireless network to multiple devices.