BROADCOM VOIP SEMICONDUCTOR PROFILE
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM), one of the top fabless semiconductor companies with nearly
$2 billion in annual revenues, is considered one of the top VoIP chip suppliers. Broadcom reported in 2005 that IDC estimated
it had 38 percent of the IP phone chip market in 2004. It was also reported that Broadcom was the only VoIP chip company to
gain market share in 2004.
In August 2005, Broadcom also reported that it supplied six of the
top eight enterprise IP phone manufacturers. According to Patrick Sullivan, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's
VoIP phone products, “Broadcom supplies IP phone solutions to six of the top eight enterprise IP phone manufacturers."
He also indicated that the company’s Ethernet IP chip had seen shipments of over three million units. "We have shipped
more than three million units since the launch of our Ethernet IP phone chip about two years ago. The recently launched Broadcom
GbE IP phone chip, combined with our industry leadership in physical layer (PHY) technology, proven security and best-in-class
voice quality, continues to set us apart from our competition. Thereby further strengthening our position while enabling customers
to develop cost-effective, feature-rich GbE phones that can take advantage of higher bandwidth and improved performance."
In October of 2004, Broadcom also indicated that it had shipped
over 4 million of its BCM1160 VoIP processors. Broadcom through two of its customers, Ambit Microsystems and iCableSystem,
reported in February of 2004 that it had shipped over four million VoIP units along with associated Broadcom software.
In September of 2003, Broadcom added NEC Infrontia Corporation,
Hitachi Communication Technologies, Ltd., and Iwatsu Electric as customers for its BCM1100 and BCM1101 IP phone engines.
In June of 2003, Broadcom reported that it had sold over 2 million
of its chips in Japan through Ambit Microsystems. In 2002, Broadcom also reported that Ambit Microsystem’s VoIP products
had resulted in over 2 million BCM1112 VoIP chip shipments.
Most of the data suggests that Broadcom so far to date has generated
the majority of its VoIP revenue in Japan, considered the genesis of the VoIP market place. Broadcom’s VoIP products
are also in Korea. ICable, a Korea based company, has used Broadcom’s BCM1112 chip for its S-MTA product.
This product permits two VoIP telephone lines to use broadband cable or DSL internet access. iCable projected that its revenue
at the time of that announcement to reach $30 million in 2004 and $50 million in 2005.
Broadcom’s offers a wide variety of different chips to VoIP
manufacturers. VoIP companies use Broadcom's WiFi, security and Ethernet chips to produce VoIP phones that offer security,
and both wireless and wired Internet connectivity. With
Broadcom’s chips, a VoIP manufacturer has the basis for the design of a WiFi enable VoIP phone, direct wired Internet
phone, converged VoIP-WiFi phone or even a cable VoIP phone.
Broadcom’s VOIP chips are now part of the mobile and
wireless product segment of Broadcom’s Enterprise Networking Products Group. Besides VoIP chips, other semiconductor
categories developed and sold through the group include Ethernet controllers, transceivers, switches, broadband network and
security processors, server chipsets and storage products. The group also provides chip solutions for broadband applications.
These include cable modems, digital cable and direct broadcast satellite set-top boxes, personal video recording applications,
DSL applications, IP set-top boxes, HD-DVDs and digital TVs. Broadcom’s mobile and wireless products include solutions
for wireless LAN, cellular, Bluetooth, mobile multimedia and VoIP solutions.
Broadcom's growing list of VoIP customers include Alpha Networks,
Ambit Microsystems, Hitachi Communication Technologies, iCableSystem, Inter-Tel Incorporated, Iwatsu Electric , Moimstone,
NEC Infrontia, Scientific-Atlanta, TCL Communications, and Wistron Neweb. It is also most likely that the companies Broadcom
has been working with on VoIP projects are now customers and have or are very likely shortly moving into mass production.
These OEMs and ODMs include Aastra Telecom, AT&T, Avaya Inc. and Foxconn. Toshiba Corp. has shipped its Strata CTX system,
which is based on Broadcom’s BCM1113 VoIP chip.
Broadcom in September of 2005 introduced a new VoIP processor and
entered into an agreement with TCL Communications Equipment (Huizhou) Co., Ltd., to supply single-chip Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) phone and analog terminal adapter (ATA) chips. The two chips selected by TCL include the BCM1113R and the
BCM1112. The two chips enable the design of low cost IP phones for the consumer and business markets.
TCL Communications, based in China is considered “The King
of Telephones in China.” The company has a manufacturing capacity in the order of 10 million units per year. TCL Communications
also has a VoIP product development agreement with Texas Instruments.
Broadcom has already obtained customers for its recently introduced
VoIP mobile processor, the BCM1161 (see the VoIP product section). Customers for this product that intend to integrate it
into WiFi VoIP converged applications include Alpha Networks, Moimstone and Wistron Neweb.
Broadcom’s range of chips include Gigabit IP phone chips,
VoIP WiFi chip set solutions, VoIP CPE engines and VoIP communications processors, all with associated reference designs for
the development of VoIP systems. The company also has addressed the Voice Over Cable modem market.
Broadcom also has the BCMVoP Calisto VoIP communications processors
and platform. That architecture incorporates DSP multiprocessing and RISC/DSP hybrid for the development of systems with 200
packet telephony channels per chip. With the platform up to 10 DSP chips can be replaced with one chip, according to
Broadcom, with a power rating of less than 10 milliwatts per channels.
