Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. maintained its ranking among the top ten chipmakers in the world in 2011.
The company, buoyed by strong growth in the wireless and mobile market, held the No. 10 ranking for the second straight year, according to El Segundo-based market tracker iSuppli Corp., a unit of IHS Inc.
Broadcom saw sales of $7.1 billion in 2011, up 7.2% from a year earlier.
The chipmaker could pass No. 9 Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc. this year on the list with its recent $3.7 billion buy of NetLogic Microsystems Inc. in Santa Clara.
Micron saw sales of $7.3 billion in 2011, down 17% from a 2010.
Micron’s Chief Executive Steve Appleton died last month after a plane he was piloting crashed at Boise Airport. The following week Mark Durcan, the company’s former chief technology officer, was named successor.
Broadcom specializes in communication chips that go in tablets, smart phones, set-top boxes, broadband modems, networking gear and other products.
Santa Clara-based Intel Corp. topped the list with $48.7 billion in revenue in 2011, up 20.6% from a year earlier.
Broadcom is only one of two fabless chipmakers on the list.
The other is No. 6 San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., which gained three spots after posting $10.1 billion in revenue in 2011, up 41.6%.
Fabless chipmakers design chips but don’t operate factories, known as wafer fabrication plants. Instead, they hire contractor manufacturers, typically in Asia, to produce their chips.
