Analysts have been wondering why Broadcom Corp. apparently thinks it could move into a lead ARM-based smartbook chip supplier, thanks to a new licensing deal with ARM for the Cortex-A9 MPCore. After all, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and nVidia’s Tegra platforms are well-established in this burgeoning field. Freescale Semiconductor’s i.MX, and possibly even Texas Instruments Inc.’s OMAP, could be considered players. Let’s assume for now that A9 is not being adopted for core routers or big telco switches, which are pretty dead end-markets these days. What could make Broadcom so upbeat about smartbooks?
True, the company has been a powerhouse in communication chips for 20 years. But some of its key markets, like Ethernet switching, have fallen victim to commodity pricing of late. And three of Broadcom’s founders have faced criminal scandals in recent years.
But before we dismiss Broadcom as a secondary player, let’s remember what the mobile handset market looked like ten years ago. At that time, Qualcomm, TI, Freescale, Analog Devices, ST, Infineon, Oak Semiconducttor, Quicksilver, and even Intel Corp. through the acquisition of two DSP startups, thought they would be strong players in 3G phones. Broadcom came in to the market a bit late, but with a strong ability to integrate GPS and Bluetooth.
Today, Qualcomm, ST-Ericsson, Infineon, TI, Freescale, and yes, Broadcom are the remaining players. Broadcom still has single-digit share, but is gaining at the expense of TI and Freescale, who are backing away from cell phones, even as Infineon and ST restrict themselves to Europe. Few would have counted Broadcom among handset survivors a few short years ago. The secret? Single-chip support for baseband voice, HSPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS.
Of course, we need to keep in mind that everything is still in the rumor stage. The Cortex M9 can be used in many other communication-processing tasks than smartbooks. But broadening its ARM portfolio could serve Broadcom well here.
Integration is one of Qualcomm’s strengths, but Broadcom is no slacker on that front, either. If the company applies its phone talents to the smartbook processing market it could come on strong. Make no mistake – this requires less voice and video processing expertise using DSP processors, and more software application execution, which is not necessarily a Broadcom strong suit. In all communication realms, however, Broadcom could well claw its way into the first tier of the smartbook market.
Loring
