Broadcom working on Merlyn chipset for Android devices

Known for its connectivity chips, Broadcomm is now wants to get in the application processor game bigtime. In an interview with Dow Jones, company VP and GM of mobile app processor unit Martyn Humphries said that company is working on new age Merlyn processor, which have been tailor made for Android. These chips will go for mass production later this year and will be on the selves as the part of Android devices next year.

“We (will be able to) provide pre-integrated software on Android to customers, as we have all the technology portfolio including video, wireless connectivity and application processors that are used in tablets and smartphones,” Humphries said in Taipei on the sidelines of electronics trade show Computex.

The Merlyn chipset is a combination of connectivity chips and a multi-media application processor clocked at 1 GHz. App processor market is already very competitive and everyone from Qualcomm, nVIDIA, AMD and Intel wants to grab a pie of it.