Broadcom Leaps Ahead of the Competition with the World's First '3G Phone on a Chip' Solution
Over a Year Ahead of Competitors, Broadcom Introduces Single-Chip HSUPA Processor
BCM21551 Features Full CMOS RF, Rich Multimedia, Bluetooth(R), FM Radio, FM Transmitter and More, Packed on a Single 65nm Die to Slash Price, Size and Power
IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) , a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced a new single-chip HSPA (high-speed packet access) processor that integrates all of the key 3G (third generation) cellular and mobile technologies on an extremely low power, single 65 nanometer CMOS die. Broadcom's new "3G Phone on a Chip" solution enables manufacturers to build next generation 3G HSUPA phones with breakthrough features, sleek form factors and very long battery life, all at a fraction of the cost of today's solutions - driving widespread consumer adoption. Never before has anyone integrated as many radio devices on a single chip, which demonstrates Broadcom's technology leadership in multi-modal CMOS RF technology.
Advancements in mobile phone designs, such as the proliferation of extensive Internet applications and web services, multimedia, high resolution video and still cameras, games and music, are driving a growing demand for faster cellular networks and an appetite for rich multimedia phones that can take advantage of them. HSUPA is often considered the ultimate cellular modem technology. There are already over 900 million subscribers in HSPA enabled networks today, and many network operators are planning massive worldwide deployment of HSUPA over the next several years. Using phones enabled by the new Broadcom(R) HSUPA processor, consumers will be able to download content at up to 7.2 Megabits per second (Mbps), and upload content such as pictures and videos at up to 5.8Mbps, all directly from their phone. HSUPA technology also holds the promise for much higher quality "live" video conferencing and an array of exciting services and applications.
Announced today is the BCM21551 3G "Phone on a Chip," which combines a high-speed HSUPA 3G baseband, a multi-band radio frequency (RF) transceiver, Bluetooth(R) 2.1 with enhanced data rate (EDR) technology, an FM radio receiver and an FM radio transmitter (for car stereo music playback). The device also features advanced multimedia processing, up to five Megapixel camera support, and 30 frame per second video with "TV Out," as well as support for the HSUPA, HSDPA, WCDMA and EDGE cellular protocols. It can even be paired with other Broadcom devices, such as Wi-Fi(R) and GPS, PMU, or the new VideoCore(R) III mobile multimedia processor. No competing cellular baseband chip has ever achieved this level of integration, which drives down cost, power and size, while enabling an advanced level of functionality. This makes the BCM21551 an ideal choice for both "mass market" high volume 3G "feature phones" as well as smartphones running an open OS such as Symbian(R), Windows Mobile(R), or Linux(R).
"Broadcom has already demonstrated commercial success with its EGPRS single-chip solution and multi-chip 3G solutions," commented Michael Thelander, CEO and Founder of Signals Research Group, LLC. "With this single chip solution, Broadcom is becoming a one-stop supplier of 3G/2G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth silicon solutions and communications software, positioning it to leapfrog many of its competitors from both a technology and market share perspective."
"With what we believe is more than a full year's lead over similar competing products, this new 3G solution should place Broadcom squarely at the head of the hyper-competitive 3G chip race," said Yossi Cohen, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Mobile Platforms Group. "We built upon the success of our single-chip EDGE solution and merely eight months later our engineers not only built a single chip HSUPA solution, but also integrated Bluetooth, FM radio, and the next level of multimedia. This is truly amazing engineering execution, a hallmark of Broadcom. Our investments in multi-modal CMOS RF and high definition multimedia technologies will further widen our mobile technology leadership in the coming years."
Technical Information
Designed and manufactured on a single 65 nanometer silicon die, the BCM21551 is an innovative HSPA system-on-a-chip (SoC) that features unprecedented integration of advanced smartphone features. The BCM21551 integrates dual ARM11(TM) processors to provide open OS support, and features full stereo music capabilities for both headset and stereo speakers as well as an integrated 5-band graphic equalizer and digital mixing capabilities for superior audio performance. The BCM21551 also integrates advanced MIPI serial interfaces for the LCD and image sensor (which facilitates a low power interface for the BCM21551 and the LCD in the phone) and the analog physical layer required for the 480Mbps high speed USB2.0 applications that enable the rapid transfer of multimedia files to and from the handset.
The BCM21551 also incorporates Broadcom's proprietary M-Stream and single antenna interference cancellation (SAIC) signal processing technologies designed to improve cellular handset reception and voice quality, ultimately resulting in fewer dropped calls.
The 65 nanometer (nm) process is the most advanced lithographic node for manufacturing semiconductors in large volumes today and provides significant benefits over 90 nm and 130 nm processes by enabling lower power consumption, smaller size and higher levels of integration. For Broadcom, the move to 65 nanometer process technology is changing the competitive landscape because of the breadth and depth of the communications intellectual property the company possesses. Without such a broad portfolio of market-leading solutions to integrate, competitors are not able to take full advantage of the benefits that these next-generation processes provide.
The BCM21551 also benefits from the company's world class expertise and extensive experience in pure digital CMOS radio design, delivering the highest RF performance and lowest power consumption available. With a deep intellectual property portfolio and mature, field-proven RF technologies (with hundreds of millions of devices shipped to date that include radio functionality), Broadcom is well suited to apply its RF expertise to the cellular market. Breakthrough RF technology enables for the first time in the industry the removal of inter-stage filters. For a typical 3-band WCDMA phone, this results in extensive savings of 6 inter-stage filters, significantly reducing cost and board space.
Availability and Pricing
The BCM21551 3G baseband processor is available now to early access customers and is priced at $23.00 in large quantities.
Broadcom Webcast - Monday, October 15, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time; 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Broadcom will conduct a webcast for media and analysts to discuss this breakthrough processor and to provide a cellular update on Monday, October 15, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time; 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The webcast will be conducted by Yossi Cohen, Senior Vice President and General Manager of
Broadcom's Mobile Platforms Group. To listen to the webcast, please visit the Investors section of the Broadcom website at http://www.broadcom.com/ir-events. The webcast will be recorded and available until 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, October 22, 2007.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art, system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything(R).
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2006 revenue of $3.67 billion, and holds over 2,200 U.S. and 900 foreign patents, more than 6,600 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video and data.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward- looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with our BCM21551 baseband processor products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for 3G HSPA applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost- effective and timely manner; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non- qualification or non-certification; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), the Connecting everything logo and VideoCore(R) are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Bluetooth(R) is a trademark of Bluetooth SIG. Wi- Fi(R) is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Symbian(R) is a trademark of Symbian Limited. Windows Mobile(R) is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Linux(R) is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. ARM11(TM) is a trademark of ARM Limited. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact Broadcom Investor Relations
Jeremy Hyatt Contact
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications T. Peter Andrew
949-926-5971 Vice President, Corporate
jhyatt@broadcom.com Communications
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
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Source: Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Mobile & Wireless
CONTACT: Press, Jeremy Hyatt, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications,
+1-949-926-5971, jhyatt@broadcom.com; or Investors, T. Peter Andrew, Vice
President, Corporate Communications, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com
Web site: Broadcom
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