Broadcom entered the GPS market in June 2007 with its acquisition of a small GPS company called Global Locate. Broadcom has a clear strategy: it only enters markets where it expects to become the top vendor. With a recent major GPS design win, the company is poised to do just that. At the same time, Broadcom has dealt a severe blow to rival Infineon.
A Tale Of Two GPS Vendors
Six years ago, Global Locate was one of several small companies working on GPS technology. Personal navigation devices (PNDs) were bulky and expensive, and very few phones had a GPS chip. SiRF dominated GPS shipments to the tune of several million chips per year.
In 2004, Global Locate licensed its fledgling GPS baseband technology to Infineon. The chip company used its analog and RF expertise to build the first complete GPS subsystem on a chip, a product it called Hammerhead. Hammerhead (and its successor, Hammerhead II) became massively successful, as Infineon shipped more than 80 million units from 2005 to 2010.
Although Global Locate received only a small licensing fee from each chip sold, Hammerhead’s success caught Broadcom’s attention when the company sought a way to enter the growing GPS chip market. After considering a licensing deal, Broadcom liked the technology so much it bought the company. By the end of 2007, it was selling its own GPS chip, the BCM4750, using the Global Locate technology.
Broadcom initially struggled to sell the BCM4750, as most customers preferred Infineon’s version. Although Broadcom used the same GPS baseband design, the RF portion of the chip is essential in achieving sensitivity. Thus, when Apple added GPS in the iPhone 3G, Infineon was the logical supplier, as its chip had been proven in the market for two years.
Having missed out on the iPhone 3G, Broadcom wooed TomTom, a leading PND vendor. Once TomTom sold millions of its GO products using the BCM4750, Broadcom was able to convince other vendors that its chip was just as good as the Hammerhead II, leading to additional design wins.
iPhone 4: The Turning Point
At the same time, Infineon was working on a new GPS chip. Because Broadcom was no longer willing to license the Global Locate technology for any new products, Infineon was forced to find another GPS baseband, inking a deal with Seiko Epson, which has sold GPS chips to Japanese phone makers for years.
When Apple sought to improve the GPS chip for the iPhone 4, it again considered Broadcom and the incumbent Infineon. Broadcom brought the now proven BCM4750, which offers the same –162-dBm tracking sensitivity as the 130-nm Hammerhead II, but its 90-nm technology reduces size and power consumption.
Continue to next page