Broadcom says Wi-Fi will be integrated into cell phones and PDAs in a few months.

Broadcom, a major semiconductor company that designs the silicon for most major routers, switches, and other communications hardware devices, has managed to pack the baseband and RF component for Wi-Fi applications onto a single chip. This means that the otherwise power-draining Wi-Fi chipsets, because of Broadcom's reverse engineering and integration, consume a lot less power. According to Broadcom's claims - so far unsubstantiated by THG - its

AirForce One chip reduces size by 87% and power consumption by as much as 97%.

The specifications fly in the face of those naysayers who have preached so long from the beginning that Wi-Fi would never see application in cell phones or be integrated into PDAs because of the battery drain.

Specifically, Broadcom's AirForce One single-chip solution integrates a 2.4 GHz radio, power amplifier, IEEE 802.11b baseband processor, medium access controller (MAC), Tx/Rx and diversity switches and other radio components onto a single silicon die.

According to Broadcom executives THG interviewed today, cell phones with Wi-Fi capabilities integrated into the phone will see application within six months.