Broadcom Corp. has acquired Sunext Design Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sunext Technology Co. Ltd., and has licensed certain optical disk reader and writer technology from Sunext Technology. Sunext, a privately held fabless semiconductor company, specializes in optical storage technologies.
Broadcom noted that Sunext’s single-chip front-end technology is a strong complement to Broadcom’s system-on-a-chip (SoC) back-end Blu-ray platform. The company said the technology was key to an integration roadmap that will drive the cost of these devices down to levels that enable widespread consumer adoption of high-definition optical disc players and recorders. The addition of Sunext’s technology, along with the experienced engineering team from Sunext Design that can continue to enhance those technologies, will enable Broadcom to derive significant time-to-market advantages in the development of these highly integrated solutions, according to Broadcom.
“The technology that will win the market-share battle for Blu-ray Disc players and recorders will be the one that provides the highest quality audio and video processing while integrating the most advanced front-end and back-end functions into a single low-cost device,” said Dan Marotta, senior vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s Broadband Communications Group. “Sunext's technology and strong engineering team will enable Broadcom to integrate optical reader/writer capability into our industry leading Blu-ray Disc silicon solutions.”
Broadcom
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