ASIA Taiwan : Broadcom Corporation announced a significant expansion of its cellular design center in Taiwan that will help to drive development of a new generation of Microsoft(R) Windows Mobile(R) smart phones based on Broadcom's highly integrated 3G cellular chipsets.

Inset is the reception area of the expanded design centre.

"We expect smart phones to capture increasing market share as optimized silicon solutions drive handset costs lower," said Jim Tran, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Mobile Communications line of business. "By expanding our Windows Mobile engineering team with local Microsoft development expertise in Taiwan, we have created a true Microsoft-based design center of excellence that will help our customers bring to market innovative new smart phone products based on Windows Mobile."

As the 3G cellular market evolves towards higher speed connections such as high-speed packet access (HSPA), mobile operators and handset manufacturers are demanding advanced, open operating systems (such as Windows Mobile) and affordable hardware platforms to deliver high quality multimedia and other advanced features to consumers. The Broadcom(R) BCM2153 HSPA processor (announced in February 2007) uniquely integrates powerful applications, multimedia and 3G modem processing on a single chip to enable a powerful smart phone platform at feature phone prices. The Taiwan design center expansion will support the development of advanced applications that the BCM2153 enables, with a particular focus on Windows Mobile devices.

"This initiative from Broadcom underscores the momentum and rapid adoption we are seeing for the Windows Mobile platform," said Eddie Wu, Senior Director of Device Solutions Sales Asia & WW ODM Ecosystems, Microsoft Corp. "Our partner ecosystem today includes a strong cadre of developer partners, leading mobile operators and 48 device makers shipping over 140 different phones worldwide. Windows Mobile enables partners to stay on the cutting edge of device innovation and roll out new services and applications to the market quickly. We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with Broadcom and supporting its expanded resources in Taiwan."

The Broadcom Taiwan Design Center is located in the Xin-Yi district of Taipei City, and employs a sizable team of software development engineers focused on smart phone software and the integration of Microsoft Windows Mobile applications with Broadcom cellular hardware and software platforms.

The BCM2153 is the industry's first solution for mobile handsets that integrates an HSPA baseband modem with world-class applications, audio and multimedia processors on a single monolithic chip. The new mixed-signal device is the first developed completely in a 65 nanometer CMOS process and integrates a Category 8 HSDPA modem that delivers 7.2 Mbps (megabits per second) third generation (3G) connectivity for advanced applications. With this level of integration, smart phones utilizing the new HSPA processor require less board space, cost and power than competing solutions, significantly reducing the cost premium associated with smart phones today.