Broadcom, a leading supplier of networking and communications chips, reported its second quarter earnings after the markets closed Tuesday. The company saw a 4.2 percent profit drop and a 6 percent increase in revenue. Non-GAAP earnings were $0.70 per share on sales of $2.09 billion.

Wall Street anticipates earnings of $0.76 on $2.25 billion in the third quarter period.
The average guidance for the full fiscal year is $2.89 ESP on revenues of $8.62 billion, a substantial increase over the $8.01 billion the company generated in 2012.

Broadcom competes with Qualcomm and Texas Instruments in the mobile semiconductor market, an increasingly lucrative segment fueled by growing demand for smartphones and tablets. The firm’s cost-efficient semiconductors have helped it secure a dominant position in this space.

A month ago, Broadcom introduced a first-of-a-kind quad-core processor for entry-level Jelly Bean devices. The product sports a 1.2GHz CPU and includes support for “dual HD” content sharing as well as a wide range of communications protocols. It can handle up to 21 Mbps of downstream connectivity and 5.8 Mbps of upward connectivity.

Broadcom is expanding in multiple directions at once: it followed up the debut of its quad-core processor with a reference platform for affordable set-top boxes. John Gleiter, Broadcom’s vice president of cable broadband, said that the solution will help capable operators in emerging markets “leverage their broadband network to deploy higher revenue-generating two-way HD services that compete effectively with satellite and IPTV video providers.”

The new STS is based on a dual-chip design that combines the performance and cost efficiency of Broadcom’s existing BCM3308 and BCM7584 devices.