AirDrop

iPhone 5 said to tap Broadcom BCM4330 chip for wireless file sharing with Macs

9to5Mac reports to have 'discovered' a Broadcom chip inside one of the prototypes of the next iPhone. The write-up specifically menions Broadcom's BCM4334 unit, basically a single-chip, dual-band silicon that supports 802.11n WiFi networking, Bluetooth 4.0+HS and an integrated FM radio receiver.

A successor to Broadcom's BCM4330 - itself fabbed on the 65-nanometer process and found inside the iPad 3 and iPhone 4S - the newer BCM4334 unit is built on the 40-nanometer process, resulting in significant power savings.

As a result of using this chip in the next iPhone, Apple should be able to mitigate power drain stemming from the bigger screen and LTE radios while making a thinner device overall. That's just the beginning. Read on...