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Industry's Most Advanced High Definition Optical Disc Player Design Platform Enables Low Price Points for Widespread Consumer Adoption
LAS VEGAS, Jan 07, 2008 -- 2008 International CES -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced a new reference design platform for qualified OEMs and ODMs that provides a turnkey solution for developing the world's newest generation of high definition (HD) optical disc players.
Announced today is the Broadcom® BCM97440 reference design, which is built around the Broadcom BCM7440 system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution currently shipping in the world's only universal players -- the BD-UP5000 from Samsung Electronics and the BH200 from LG Electronics. The BCM7440 continues to be the industry's only single-chip solution that fully supports the demanding requirements of both Blu-ray Disc® and HD DVD standards. With the BCM7440 SoC as the foundation, the new BCM97440 reference design incorporates complete software stacks that meet Blu-ray™, HD DVD and universal player requirements enabling manufacturers to introduce mass market HD solutions to market quickly, and at the right price points for widespread consumer adoption.
With two high definition optical disc media player options currently available, consumers are often confused when it comes to choosing one format over the other. The BCM97440 reference design alleviates this industry dilemma by providing media player manufacturers with the design tools capable of meeting the demanding processing requirements of both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD standards. Featuring multiple processing cores and software stacks, the BCM97440 reference design provides the necessary performance to support next generation interactive technologies and network connected applications currently being developed by Hollywood studios using sophisticated BD-Java (Blu-ray Disc) and HDi (HD DVD) technologies.
"Our highly integrated universal BCM7440 SoC leverages our field proven expertise in software to provide a turnkey solution for manufacturers looking to develop Blu-ray, HD DVD and universal players," said Dan Eiref, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Consumer Electronics line of business. "With this new turnkey platform, Broadcom is driving the availability of HD optical disc players by enabling manufacturers to easily develop mass market products at low system costs."
BCM97440 Platform Information
The BCM7440 Blu-ray/HD DVD SoC offers OEMs a high performance, single-chip media player design platform that incorporates the decoding, processing and memory functions for both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD media players, eliminating the need for manufacturers to build two different hardware platforms. It integrates a multiple core MIPS® architecture, a multi-stream HD video decoder, dedicated graphics engines, digital signal processing (DSP)-based audio processors, a security processor, double data rate (DDR) interfaces, integrated video and audio outputs and a complete array of system and network connectivity interfaces.
To complete its capabilities, the BCM97440 reference platform offers a full range of analog and digital outputs including full 1080p HDMI 1.3 digital output, HD component and standard definition baseband video analog outputs, SPDIF and stereo analog outputs, an optional multi-channel analog output module, optical drive interfaces, a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet port, and a USB 2.0 expansion port.
The BCM97440 reference design supports a complete software stack that meets Blu-ray, HD DVD and universal player requirements, and has been designed to allow OEMs or ODMs to easily customize the overall look and feel of the splash screens and system menus. The software stack includes support for easily adding additional languages and remote control codes.
Availability and Pricing
The BCM97440C reference design with a Blu-ray Disc and legacy DVD application software stack is available now to qualified customers. The HD DVD and universal dual format application software will be available in the first half of 2008. Pricing is available upon request.
Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group
Broadcom offers manufacturers a range of broadband communications and consumer electronics SoC solutions that enable voice, video and data services over residential wired and wireless networks. These highly integrated silicon solutions continue to enable the most advanced system solutions on the market, which include digital cable, satellite and IP set-top boxes and media servers, broadband modems and residential gateways, high definition and digital televisions, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc players, DVD recorders and personal video recorders.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art, system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2006 revenue of $3.67 billion, and holds over 2,300 U.S. and 1,000 foreign patents, more than 7,100 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video and data.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at http://www.broadcom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with BCM97440 reference design products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for high performance digital media center applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost- effective and timely manner; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Blu-ray-Disc® is a trademark of Sony Corporation. Dolby® is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation. MIPS® is a trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc. Blu-ray™ is a trademark of Blu-ray Disc Association. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Laura Brandlin
Senior Director,
Marketing Communications
949-926-5108
lbrandlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Vice President,
Corporate Communications
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Broadband
http://www.broadcom.com
