BROADCOM INTRODUCES ADSL2+ CPE ROUTER CHIP.

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM), a provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, has introduced an ADSL2+ CPE router chip that offers unparalleled ADSL2+ physical layer performance, wire-speed routing throughput, and enhanced features. The level of performance and features incorporated into the Broadcom single-chip solution will enable telecommunications service providers to increase their revenue opportunities by offering consumers higher speed Internet connections and differentiated voice, video and data services over copper telephone lines.

It is expected that adoption of ADSL2+ by telecommunications service providers will grow significantly over the next few years due to its tripling of bandwidth over standard ADSL, enabling support for new services, such as videoconferencing, video-on-demand and network gaming. According to a recent InStat/MDR worldwide subscriber forecast report, ADSL subscriptions are estimated to increase at a 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), beginning with 63.4 million subscribers in 2003 and growing to approximately 158.8 million subscribers by the end of 2008.

The Broadcom BCM6348 CPE router chip is designed to accelerate this growth by supporting, for the first time, wire-speed bridging and routing with up to 30 Megabits per second (Mbps) of downstream performance for premium voice, video and data services. To complement this unprecedented performance increase, the BCM6348 includes enhanced features such as multiple integrated 10/100 Mbps Ethernet interfaces, concurrent USB host and device interfaces, and mini-PCI interfaces for seamless IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN connections. Products based on the BCM6348 are software compatible with Broadcom's prior generation BCM6345 and BCM6335 ADSL devices, enabling customers to leverage past investments in protocol stack development.

"The significant performance advantages offered by the BCM6348 enable our customers to show differentiation and leadership at the DSL physical layer, in addition to offering enhanced network performance and connectivity, which allow service providers to offer higher speed services and increase subscription revenue," said John O'Neill, director of DSL Marketing for Broadcom. "Sampling since late 2003, the BCM6348 has enabled our customers to demonstrate to telecommunications service providers worldwide the system advantages and differentiated services that our CPE router chip can offer them."

"The BCM6348 is a natural evolution of our existing BCM6345-based ADSL and 802.11b access points," said Inventel president and CEO, Eric Carreel. "With the BCM6348, we are able to support the next wave of ADSL2+ access points required to meet requirements of European telecommunications and service providers. Broadcom's solutions for ADSL2+ and 802.11b/g have allowed Inventel to remain the dominant ADSL access point provider to many European telcos." Inventel is a leader in the development of CPEs using advance combinations of access and consumer technologies, including Bluetooth, DECT, 802.11 and DSL.

Kevin Shen, director of Product Marketing for TECOM comments, "The high-speed embedded CPU and system level integration of the BCM6348 make it an ideal solution to drive the next generation of ADSL2+ CPE deployments. TECOM has leveraged Broadcom's ADSL solutions, as well as their strengths in VoIP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Ethernet home networking solutions, to rapidly diversify our broadband product portfolio."

BCM6348 Product Information

The BCM6348 is a highly integrated, single-chip ADSL2+ bridge/router solution incorporating a MIPS32 processor core, hardware-based ATM segmentation and reassembly (SAR) for advanced traffic shaping, and an integrated ADSL2+ transceiver and analog front end (AFE). The embedded MIPS32 CPU, with software supplied by Broadcom, supports advanced application development and service models with tool chains. The MIPS32 CPU also supports wire-speed bridging and routing between ADSL2+ and LAN interfaces.

The number of peripheral interfaces integrated into the BCM6348 is unmatched in the industry. Advanced peripherals, such as the embedded USB host and device transceiver, provide connectivity to consumer devices for printers, cameras and mass storage devices, while the two 10/100 Mbps Ethernet interfaces, supporting auto-MDIX, can be used to support Broadcom's multiport Ethernet switching family for Ethernet and FTTH applications. The mini-PCI/ Cardbus interface is an ideal expansion bus supporting seamless wireless networking using Broadcom's 54g 802.11 WLAN solutions with SecureEZSetup technology.

To support customers' time-to-market goals, Broadcom has created several reference designs incorporating the BCM6348, including the BCM96348W, an ADSL 2+ gateway with on-board 802.11b/g, BCM96348L, a low-cost ADSL2/ADSL2+ router, and the BCM96348GW, an ADSL2+ access point with an embedded mPCI 802.11b/g module. All of the reference designs come with Broadcom-supplied board support packages and protocol software to accelerate customers' application development.

The BCM6348 ADSL2+ CPE router chip is available in volume quantities. The chip is priced at $15 each in 10,000 piece quantities.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. The company designs, develops and supplies complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions incorporating digital, analog, radio frequency (RF), microprocessor and digital signal processing (DSP) technologies, as well as related hardware and software system-level applications. Our diverse product portfolio addresses every major broadband communications market and includes solutions for digital cable and satellite set-top boxes; high definition television (HDTV); cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) modems and residential gateways; high-speed transmission and switching for local, metropolitan, wide area and storage networking; home and wireless networking; cellular and terrestrial wireless communications; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway and telephony systems; broadband network and security processors; and SystemI/O server solutions. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Broadcom Corporation can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.broadcom.com/.

For more information, call 949/450-8700.