Berkeley Networks Named Best of 1998'S Hot Communications Equipment Companies by Upside Magazine.

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 1998--Upside, the magazine edited for executives and investors in digital technology companies, has named Berkeley Networks, Inc., the best communications equipment company in its list of 1998's top 100 private companies.

The Hot 100 list is appearing on-line this week at Upside's Web site: http://www.upside.com, and in print in the May issue.

Upside noted that Berkeley "has a good management pedigree and a strong group of investors. The company makes a family of integrated network switches that combines the Windows NT network operating system with an application-aware switching platform."

The selection process, according to the editors, involved picking the brains of "everybody in the business who might know anything about technology startups -- from venture capitalists to financial analysts."

In January, Berkeley Networks introduced its exponeNT series of high-performance, application-aware switches. By embedding Windows NT directly into the high-performance switching platform, Berkeley Networks significantly reduces the administrative burden for the network operator by providing on a single, extensible network operating system an integrated set of multi-platform services both to control the network infrastructure and to address the demands of network-focused applications.

Ravi Sethi, Chairman and CEO of Berkeley Networks, said, "Berkeley's exponeNT switch family answers the recognized need for next-generation networks to reconcile two separate operating environments with overlapping services and functions. The open architecture of the switches creates an entirely new value proposition for network operators who can choose best-of-class services from multiple vendors to run on their networks. Berkeley fully deserves the hot company award because this is the same 'value sharing' business model that brought about huge growth in the computer industry."

Berkeley Networks develops a new generation of policy-driven, application-aware switching platforms based on Windows NT and advanced stateful inspection switching ASICs that raises the intelligence of the network infrastructure in support of next-generation network-centric computing environments. Founded in June 1996, Berkeley Networks is privately held and has raised $14.6 million. Venture and corporate investors include SunAmerica, New Enterprise Associates, Information Technology Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Vantage Point Ventures and Intel Corporation. The company is headquartered at 1805 McCandless Dr., Milpitas, CA 95035; phone [phone]; fax [phone]. For more information visit Berkeley Networks' Web site at http://www.berkeleynet.com.

CONTACT: Berkeley Networks

Donal Byrne, 408/719-3004

[e-mail]

or

Ulevich & Orrange, Inc.

William Orrange or Janis Ulevich, 650/329-1590

[e-mail]