Management

Broadcom Fellow; Technical Director, Communication Systems Research

Degrees: Dipl.Ing. in Electrical Engineering, Technical University, Vienna;
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich
Specialty: Digital transmission theory
Invention: Trellis-coded modulation

In 1967, when Ph.D. student Gottfried Ungerboeck became a research staff member at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Rueschlikon, Switzerland, he worked on digital signal processing and switching systems. Then, he turned his talents to communication and information theory. He went on to develop digital signal processors and invent trellis-coded modulation.

After rising to the rank of Fellow at IBM, Dr. Ungerboeck joined Broadcom in 1998 as a technical director dealing with "last mile" technologies. He saw Broadcom as a company that was determined to be the leader in communications chip development.

"Broadcom's ability to take an idea and implement it is excellent," says Gottfried. "This company is determined to do these things. A key competitive advantage is that we are aiming at the broadest portfolio of products within this industrial segment: chips for communication."

Gottfried spends 75 percent of his time at his home office in Switzerland, and 25 percent of his time in Irvine. As Technical Director, his role is essentially self-driven. He finds problems to solve and addresses them. More often than not, Gottfried finds himself working on seemingly impossible challenges.

"Right now I'm working on 10-Gigabit transmission over twisted pair cable," says Gottfried. "Three years ago, I recall saying that this is not possible. It cannot work and besides, who needs it? Three years later, I am fully immersed in this project, and it will work."

VP, Engineering, Office of the CTO

AKA: Chief Toy Officer
Degree: Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan
Sidelines: Radio controlled vehicles, photography, art
Expertise: Digital signal processing

"A lot of intelligent engineers interacting with each other quite nicely." That's how Mehdi Hatamian describes the environment at Broadcom. Mehdi is Vice President of Engineering, reporting directly to Scott McGregor, Broadcom's President and Chief Executive Officer.

The Office of the CTO at Broadcom is a small R&D group comprised of individuals who are recognized in their fields. Mehdi's team is called the DSP Microelectronics Technology Group. "Even though it's a small group, it's extremely exciting," says Mehdi. "And we're very picky about who we hire, too."

He's not kidding. In fact, this small group of approximately 10 engineers is responsible for 7.5 percent of Broadcom's total patent portfolio. Mehdi himself has about 26 patents issued, with more pending. But according to Mehdi, it's not the number of patents that get issued (Broadcom's filing rate is 600 patents/year), it's the number of ideas that get implemented and chip designs that get transferred into product.

"There's a world of difference between making only one of something and making a product that's robust and reliable, that you are willing to sell to your customers and put the Broadcom logo on it. It's that type of environment that I have tried to create inside this Office of the CTO organization."

Mehdi's office is another story. It features a collection of amazing radio-controlled vehicles and other devices that have earned him the moniker of "Chief Toy Officer." An avid photographer and artist, Mehdi recently created a stunning piece out of Broadcom chips that now hangs on the wall of Henry Samueli's office. The two first met when the company was starting up in Westwood, California.

After working for Bell Labs and NASA in the '80s, Mehdi started his own chip design company in New Jersey that was ultimately acquired by Intel. Just when he was ready to start another company, Henry and Nick (Broadcom co-founder and former CEO, Henry Nicholas) convinced Mehdi to join Broadcom.

"I was really impressed," adds Mehdi. "They really believed in what they were doing, which of course proved to be right. Broadcom is in the business of connecting everything, and we truly are doing that. There isn't a single area in communication that we are not touching."

VP & Chief Architect, Central Engineering

Degree: Master's, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Expertise: Analog and mixed signal
Languages: Dutch, German, French, English

After earning his Master's degree from the University of Twente, the entrepreneurial research university in the Netherlands, Pieter Vorenkamp went to work for Philips Research. That was where he met Klaas Bult, another talented Dutch engineer who currently serves as VP & CTO, Central Engineering for Broadcom and is located in the Netherlands. Klaas left Philips Research to teach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which ultimately served as his connection to Broadcom.

When Klaas joined Broadcom, he called his former research associate, Pieter Vorenkamp. "He said you just gotta check it out," recalls Pieter. "Come here for a day and you'll feel it. And that was absolutely true. The company was less than a hundred people, but you could see that what they were doing, there was a meaning to it; a reason for it. I knew this was the place I wanted to be."

Pieter's office is in Irvine, California. His Central Engineering group provides technology support to all four of Broadcom's business units: Broadband Communications, Enterprise Computing, Networking Infrastructure and Mobile & Wireless. Pieter is responsible for the entire Analog and Mixed Signal group, which consists of 120 engineers worldwide.

"This is, by far, the strongest analog group in the world," says Pieter. "I'm absolutely convinced of that. If you look at the talent we have, but also the breadth of technology we're developing from an analog point of view, I don't think there are a lot of companies out there who can even get close to matching it."

Another thing that sets Broadcom apart is the fact that most of the technology developed here gets turned into products that impact the company's bottom line. As Pieter points out, this is what really drives these talented engineers. When asked what the future may hold, he smiles. "We're still early," Pieter says. "The company is still growing. There's still a lot to be done. The beautiful thing is, there's never enough bandwidth."