Broadcom Corporation is an American company that supplies integrated circuits for broadband communications. The main offices are located in Irvine California.
Henry Nicholas and Henry Samueli founded Broadcom in 1991. Both worked in TRW, Inc. This experience gave them the exposure to the Defense Department's Very High Speed IC (VHSIC) program. This exposure helped them in designing commercial circuits with powerful silicon compilers. Samuel teaches electrical engineering at UCLA and Nicholas was his former student.
In 1993, the company started to kick off in the market. Scientific-Atlanta Inc. contracted them to supply three-chip chipset. Scientific-Atlanta manufactures TV set-top boxes.
Broadcom Corporation started its initial public offering in April 1998. The stock increased to 123% on its first day. Within six months, the company's stock doubled in price. Occasionally, the company traded above $72, which is three times its original price.
Today, Broadcom Corporation is a world leader in semiconductors with respect to wireless and wired communications. Broadcom products are greatly known to provide its users, clients and customers the ability to deliver voice, data, and multimedia to and throughout the home and office as well as in the mobile environment.
Broadcom Corporation has a diverse list of products. They have Bluetooth products for PCs, mobile phones, mice and keyboards. They also provide solutions to complex broadband networks.
The company also offers digital TV solutions for cable, interactive televisions and DBS set-top boxes. They have digital cable products for cable modems, personal video recording, and digital cable televisions.
Other products of the company include multimedia processors for cell phones handheld platforms. They also have voice over IP solutions for operation in Wi-Fi phones, enterprise IP phones, and residential terminal adapters. They have DSL ultra fast access chipsets for central offices and customer premise equipment.
The company currently provides equipment for many computer companies and manufacturers such as Apple, Cisco, Dell, Echostar, IBM, HP, Nortel, and Motorola.
Broadcom outsources all of its semiconductor manufacturing to foundries in Asia like SMIC, Chartered, and UMC. It also has other research and development sites in Silicon Valley and in India.
