The device leverages Silicon Labs' highly successful and proven FM technology and offers unmatched integration and performance allowing FM receive and transmit to be added to any portable device by using a single chip. As with the Si470x and Si471x products, the Si472x offers industry-leading size, performance, low power consumption and ease of use.

The Si472x's digital integration reduces the required external components of traditional offerings, resulting in a solution requiring only an external inductor and bypass capacitor and a PCB space of approximately 15 mm². The Si472x is layout compatible with Silicon Labs' Si470x FM radio receivers, Si473x AM/FM radio receivers and the Si471x FM radio transmitter solutions, allowing a single PCB layout to accommodate a variety of music features. High yield manufacturability, unmatched performance, easy design-in and software programmability are key advantages of the Si472x.

The Si4721 is the industry's first single-chip integrated FM radio transceiver including both receive and transmit support for the European Radio Data System (RDS) and the U.S. Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS). RDS allows digital information sent from the broadcaster to be displayed, such as station ID, song name and music category. In Europe, alternate frequency (AF) information is also provided to automatically change stations in areas where broadcasters use multiple frequencies. In transmit mode, digital information such as artist name, song title, music category and branded messaging can be transmitted and displayed on any RDS/RBDS receiver.