Broadcom

From Freepedia

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) is a leading supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications. Founded in 1991 by Henry Samueli (chairman and CTO) and Henry Nicholas, it became a public company in 1998 and now employs over 3,700 people worldwide.

Broadcom's product line spans computer-networking from top to bottom: the company has products for enterprise/metropolitan high-speed networks, as well as products for SOHO (small-office, home-office) networks. Products include transceiver and processor ICs for ethernet and wireless LANs, cable modems, digital subscriber line (DSL), servers, home networking devices (router, switches, port-concentators) and cellular phones (GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA).

The company also produces ICs for carrier access equipment, audio/video processors for digital set-top boxes and digital video recorders, Bluetooth transceivers, and RF receivers/tuners for satellite TV. Major customers include Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Dell, Lenovo, Logitech, Cisco Systems and TiVo. Broadcom also supplies the chip which powers Apple's new video iPod.

Broadcom is known as a fabless company. It outsources all semiconductor manufacturing to Asian merchant foundries, such as TSMC, SMIC, Silterra, and UMC. The company is based in Irvine, California, with other research and development sites in Silicon Valley and Bangalore, India.

In Q2 2005, Broadcom Corporation announced a strategic partnership to provide wireless technology for Nintendo's next generation gaming systems. Broadcom will be offering Nintendo its “online solution on a chip” as deployed in millions of notebooks and PDAs across the globe, enabling Nintendo wireless connectivity in its next-generation consoles.