Broadcom, Semiconductor Maker, Unveils Chip to Process Video and Data
By Scott Lanman
Broadcom Unveils Networking Chip to Process Video, Data
Irvine, California, Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Broadcom Corp.,
the No. 1 maker of semiconductors for cable modems, introduced a
chip that lets computer-networking equipment process video,
telephone and Internet data more efficiently at a lower cost.
Broadcom's StrataSwitch chip, costing about $100, performs
functions of chip sets costing $500 to $1,000. It would be used
in switches that receive information from computers in a network
and transmit it to other computers or switches.
Broadcom's shares have rocketed more than 10-fold since the
company went public in April 1998, benefiting from demand for
chips used in high-speed office networks and cable modems. Its
revenue more than quintupled last year to $203.1 million.
Broadcom hopes to place the chips in the estimated 3.3 million
high-speed switches that will be sold next year.
The chip speeds functions such as videoconferencing, using
the Internet for telephone calls and online-transaction
processing, said Marty Colombatto, vice president and general
manager of Broadcom's networking-business unit. It contains about
60 million transistors, more than six times as many as an Intel
Corp. Pentium III processor.
Broadcom, whose customers include top networking-equipment
makers like Cisco Systems Inc. and 3Com Corp., expects the first
products featuring the chip to be available by the end of the
year. It took about a year for engineers at Maverick Networks,
which Broadcom bought in May for $165 million in stock, to
develop the chip, Broadcom said. |
