More Consumer Electronics Chipmakers Get Flashed

Written by Ryan Lawler

Tuesday, January 6. 2009 at 02:30 PM EST Post a comment

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Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE) is getting serious about getting embedded on consumer electronics (CE) devices, with two new partnerships to put its Flash technology directly on the chips that make those devices work.

Just a day after announcing a partnership with Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) to embed its Flash Lite technology on Intel CE processors, the company announced it has struck deals with Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM) and Sigma Designs Inc. (Nasdaq: SIGM) to get on their chips, as well.

Broadcom says it will add Adobe's Flash Lite technology to its BCM3549, BCM3556, BCM7400, and BCM7405 system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, which will make Adobe's video technology natively available on a number of IPTV set-top box and digital TV platforms. Broadcom is showing off chips that contain Adobe Flash this week at CES, and says the first chips to include the technology will be generally available in the first half of this year.

Sigma -- which makes SoCs for IPTV and cable-IP set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and digital media adapters -- says it will also be adding Adobe Flash Lite to its chips. Details are sketchy on which of its products will have Adobe's technology added, and the company has not yet provided a timeline for when the Flash-enabled products will be available. 

For Adobe, the announcements highlight the dominance of its Flash video platform both on PCs and in the consumer electronics world. The company claims that Flash is on 98 percent of Internet-connected PCs, and over 800 million devices worldwide. With the help of Intel, Broadcom, and Sigma, its expansion onto HDTVs, set-top boxes, and other devices should accelerate in the coming years.