Beceem Communications today confirmed its chipset relationship with Samsung, formally announcing what everybody already knew: Beceem is supplying Mobile WiMAX silicon to the Korean vendor.

Beceem has long been tied to the WiMAX networks Samsung has launched in South Korea to demonstrate the commercial viability of its WiBro and future Mobile WiMAX technologies. Because Beceem makes only CPE chipsets and Samsung supplied most of the WiMAX handsets, it was a foregone conclusion that Beceem’s technology was powering the device radios. Samsung also made investments in Beceem in its 2005 venture capital rounds.

The announcement, however, is not without its significance. The OEM deal extends Beceem’s partnership with Samsung well beyond Korea and most likely into devices that Samsung builds for the U.S. market for the new Sprint Mobile WiMAX network. Sprint has already confirmed that Beceem has joined its WiMAX ecosystem effort, which could make Beceem a major chipset player in the multi-billion-dollar network deployment. Motorola has tapped TI for its device silicon, while Intel is central to the ecosystem, leveraging its visibility with PC manufacturers to bring its next-generation WiMAX Centrino chip to CPEs and laptops.

Beceem will supply Samsung with its baseband processor, RF and modem software, which have receive diversity capabilities that Beceem claims deliver the highest WiMAX device performance in the industry. No specifics of the deal were revealed, nor were any financial details. Beceem, however, said that its solution would be embedded in multiple Samsung WiMAX devices.