Newly Upbeat Address

Out with the old, in with the new. This fall, Broadcom Corp. will move its offices across the street and take over the old AST Research Inc. facilities in Irvine.

Financially troubled computer maker AST sold its 14-acre, three-building campus to the Irvine Co. in spring. The move was part of a downsizing by AST’s parent, Samsung Electronics Corp. AST, which had more than 1,800 workers in Orange County in 1994, now has about 150 employees locally.

Broadcom, however, is booming and its staff, now 370, is continually expanding.

“We’re spread out over four different sites,” said Henry T. Nicholas, III, Broadcom’s chief executive and co-founder. “We really needed a central space.”

Broadcom declined to discuss financial details of the lease.

The news is a sign of the ever-growing influence of networked computers, where the demand of special computer chips is soaring as more and more people plug into the Internet.

Analysts are giddy about the future of the Irvine chip maker, which enjoyed a blowout initial public offering in April and recently posted healthy earnings. The company is now positioned as the industry leader in digital circuits for cable modems, digital set-top boxes and satellite broadcasting.

Since its IPO, Broadcom has quietly been signing deals and staying strong. Take the pending AT&T-TCI; Communications Inc. merger, which analysts predict will make cable-set top boxes more attractive to TV-loving consumers. (These devices allow access to a host of multimedia services and faster Internet connections.)

TCI has an agreement with General Instrument to build cable set-top boxes. Broadcom, in turn, has a four-year agreement with General Instrument, which will buy only Broadcom chips needed to make these devices handle data, voice and video transmissions.

Even if the deal between AT&T; and TCI doesn’t go through, the cable box maker will still be buying its chips from Broadcom.

“It’s an exciting time to be in this business, and I think things are only going to get better,” Nicholas said.

P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com.