Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Qualcomm makes move on wireless firms
by Nick Flaherty
Friday 8 December 2006

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2006/12/08/40330/Qualcomm+makes+move+on+wireless+firms.htm

US fabless chip maker Qualcomm is taking on Broadcom, Marvell and STMicroelectronics in the consumer electronics equipment market by buying companies that focus on Bluetooth and wireless LAN.

It has bought Airgo, a supplier of wireless LAN technology that uses multiple antennas for the 802.11n standard, and the Bluetooth operation of RF Micro (formerly Silicon Wave). Both deals are due to complete by the end of December.

These technologies will be used with both Qualcomm's CDMA chipsets for mobile phones but also for the new consumer part, Snapdragon, said Luis Pineda, senior vice-president of marketing and product management at Qualcomm Communications Technology.


“Certainly Broadcom and Marvell are players in the market but not on a par with Qualcomm’s wireless customer base,” he said. “What it brings to us is new channels, new customers and the ability to integrate this into our chipsets. Wireless LAN with 3G gives us broadband on the go.”

Airgo in Silicon Valley has 120 people, and Qualcomm has already re-branded Airgo’s latest 802.11n 2.0 specification MIMO wireless LAN technology as its own. The SiliconWave group already worked with Qualcomm and has 60 engineers in Qualcomm’s home town of San Diego. Qualcomm also works with Cambridge Silicon Radio on the radio side and will continue to do so, said Pineda.

Snapdragon aims to add connectivity to consumer devices, so will include UMTS 3G, broadcast TV reception, WiFi wireless LAN and Bluetooth, based around a 1GHz customised ARM-core designed by Qualcomm called Scorpion. This is paired with a 128 bit single-instruction, multiple-data capability and a 600MHz digital signal processor to accelerate multimedia applications, and the first customer is Samsung.