By Vikram Sethi

Broadcom has introduced a new reference design and accompanying software that will increase battery life for wireless keyboards based on the “classic” Bluetooth basic rate radio. Bluetooth keyboards based on Broadcom’s new design can match up to 10 year battery life of  Bluetooth low energy (BLE) solutions.

Broadcom’s new design will yield a new generation of keyboards and other Human Interface Devices (HIDs) that could operate for the life of the product on a single pair of AA batteries.

The new reference design is based on the Broadcom BCM20730 65 nm low-power HID chip. HIDs based on the Broadcom BCM20730 can enjoy the same battery life as those based on Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technology, even when connected to existing devices that have shipped with older versions of Bluetooth.