Maybe it's time for Broadcom Chief Technology Officer Henry Samueli to get a little of the limelight.

For years, CPU makers like Intel, IBM, and Apple got the glory in the processor industry. But as mobile and cloud computing explodes, communication chips are getting more important, and that's the market where the company Samueli co-founded is a dominant player.

Wednesday, the company announced a new processor that's emblematic of the new trends in the computing industry. The BCM20736 is a modest little thing -- a chip that lets a device communicate over low-power Bluetooth links and charge its batteries wirelessly. But the chip fits neatly into two hot new trends: wearable computing and the Internet of things.

This first category includes fitness devices, Google Glass, and assorted smartwatch efforts. The second involves spreading the Net beyond PCs and phones to things like cars, thermostats, houseplants, smart power meters, and, yes, coffeepots.

Samueli founded Broadcom in 1991, a time when wireless communications were a rarity in the industry and unheard of for consumers. Now electromagnetic waves carry not just data, but power, too. But wired communications remain critical to the overall Internet.

Samueli shared his vision for communications technology in an interview with CNET's Stephen Shankland.

By: DocMemory
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