Broadcom said on Monday that it has partnered with Nokia, one of the world's top makers of telecom equipment, to design and develop custom chips for use in 5G networking gear, as it battles Intel and Marvell to supply key components of 5G base stations. 5G networks are set to offer far faster data transfers and lower latency than 4G ones.
Broadcom said it is working with Nokia to roll out new system-on-chip (SoC) processors that improve the cost, power and performance of 5G networks. The chips are designed to be deployed in different building blocks of Nokia’s radio access network (RAN) solutions. Nokia has started to roll out 5G base stations that beam out signals used in 5G networks, including millimeter waves, to different devices instead of sending signals in a wide cone.
The second largest telecom gear manufacturer in the world, Nokia is also partnering with Intel and Marvell to expand its portfolio of baseband chips for use in 5G base stations.
Intel said it is supplying its new generation of 5G processors, code named Snow Ridge and based on its 10-nanometer Atom architecture, to many of the top manufacturers of 5G infrastructure, including Nokia, Ericsson and ZTE—the No.2, No.3 and No.4 players in the telecom equipment market last year, according to market researcher Dell'Oro Group. Intel has ambitions to control 40% of the global market for base station silicon by 2021.
Intel believes the market for 5G network infrastructure silicon could be worth $25 billion by 2023 and that more than 5 million 5G base stations will be shipped out globally by 2024.
It is also fighting Marvell, which has started selling its latest series of Octeon Fusion chips to handle the throughput and latency of 4G and 5G networks. Marvell has partnered with Nokia, which accounted for around 20% of the total market for telecom infrastructure last year, to roll out baseband processors based on the Octeon Fusion IP for use in its 5G RAN products. Marvell said it is also supplying the multicore Octeon Fusion chips to Samsung.
Samsung is looking to leapfrog Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and others in rolling out new 5G networks. Samsung hopes to command 20% of the global market by the end of 2020.
Separately, Broadcom also offers chips for 5G smartphones. It has hammered out deals to supply wireless components to Apple, including radio frequency chips used to clarify the signals used by 4G and 5G networks. The deals, which last into 2023, give it guaranteed slots in Apple's iPhone and other products for years to come. Over the life of the deals, Apple is projected to pay about $15 billion to the San Diego, California-based company.
Hock Tan, Broadcom's chief executive, has said that the parts it sells for 5G smartphones are about 30% to 40% more valuable than the prior generation of chips in 4G models.