Broadcom Launches Newest Member of its QuadSquad 0.13-Micron Family of Gigabit Quad Transceivers.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2001

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq:BRCM):

Quad Transceiver Featuring Reduced Pin Count SerDes and SGMII 

Interfaces Reduces Design Complexity by 84%

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq:BRCM), the leading provider of integrated circuits enabling broadband communications, today announced that it is sampling the Broadcom(R) BCM5434, the newest member of its QuadSquad(TM) family of Gigabit quad transceivers optimized for high port density Gigabit Ethernet switches and routers. The device, which features a choice of reduced-pin count SerDes or Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interfaces (SGMII), uses the industry's only 0.13-micron Gigabit physical layer (PHY) architecture, and as a result, has the industry's lowest power, at less than one watt per port. The BCM5434 and other members of the QuadSquad family facilitate deployment of Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth to the desktop by increasing port density and lowering system cost.

"With the addition of SerDes and SGMII interfaces, we have squarely addressed the complexities of high port count networking systems," said Marty Colombatto, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Networking Business Unit. "These reduced pin count interfaces simplify design and can lower system cost by reducing the number of layers required to route high density networking solutions. In addition, they enable smaller, next-generation switch ASICs by reducing the number of pins required in the switch chip."

The BCM5434 incorporates Broadcom's fourth-generation Gigabit Ethernet transceiver technology implemented in the advanced 0.13-micron CMOS process. Because this process technology is expected to be leading edge for the next two to three years, customers designing with the BCM5434 can lock in the benefits of 0.13-micron without having to redesign or requalify a new part. The 0.13-micron Gigabit physical layer core of the BCM5434 has already been proven in production in Broadcom's quad-port BCM5404 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver and the recently introduced single port BCM5421 copper and BCM5421S copper-plus-fiber transceivers. Broadcom's DigiPHY(TM) Ethernet transceivers are the most widely deployed and field-proven in the industry, with over 2,500,000 Gigabit ports and 250 million Fast Ethernet ports shipped to date.

The BCM5434 is manufactured using the advanced 0.13-micron process technology developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of Broadcom's foundry partners. Broadcom and TSMC worked collaboratively over the past two years, drawing on Broadcom's advanced circuit and IC expertise and TSMC's process technology know how. The resulting mixed signal solutions have enabled Broadcom to achieve superior performance, lower cost and slash power requirements by 50 percent.

"Broadcom has developed an entire family of transceivers based on TSMC 0.13-micron technology," said Dr. Edward Ross, President, TSMC North America. "This demonstrates the benefits of the collaborative relationship between TSMC and Broadcom that enables the rapid delivery of advanced products based on Broadcom's core designs and TSMC's 0.13-micron all-copper process technology. With tens of thousands of hours of experience in the development of this technology since January 2000, we are confident that TSMC can deliver the volumes necessary to provide our customers with a significant competitive advantage in their respective markets."

The on-chip SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer) interface provides a four-pin connection to the Switch/MAC, while the SGMII interface is an alternative six-pin MAC/PHY interface. The SerDes interface can also be connected to a fiber module. These reduced pin-count interfaces simplify design and can lower system cost by reducing board layout constraints in high-density solutions. In addition, with these interfaces on the BCM5434, fewer pins are required for the MAC/Switch ASIC, which can reduce the MAC/Switch cost by enabling smaller die sizes than would be possible with existing GMII or TBI interfaces. For a 48-port system, using the SerDes interface instead of the traditional GMII interface saves over 1000 pins and 1000 traces, a reduction of 84%.

The BCM5434 incorporates all three Ethernet speeds -- 10, 100, and 1000 Megabits per second (Mbps) -- with standards-based auto-negotiation, to ensure compatibility with all existing Ethernet network equipment operating over legacy Category 5 copper cable plants. Unique Ethernet@Wirespeed(TM) technology enables equipment manufactured using the BCM5434 to auto-negotiate to the maximum speed possible over an impaired cable plant, regardless of the maximum speed advertised by the end-equipment.

To ensure robust operation at Gigabit speeds over the broadest range of existing cable plants, the BCM5434 incorporates the industry's most powerful transceiver DSP engine, delivering over one Teraop (one trillion operations per second) performance, when combined with high-speed, precision mixed-signal circuits. The BCM5434 is designed to exceed IEEE specifications for noise cancellation and transmit jitter, to provide consistent and reliable operation, even over marginal cable plants.

The BCM5434's cable diagnostic capability allows users, IT managers and networking equipment manufacturers to remotely analyze the quality and attributes of the cable, thereby avoiding unnecessary equipment returns and service calls. Built-in diagnostics help pinpoint the cause of network malfunctions without deploying field support personnel or bringing down the network.

Availability

The BCM5434 Gigabit Ethernet-over-Copper Transceiver is currently sampling to Broadcom's early access partners and is priced at $96 in quantities of 1000 units.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is the leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, Broadcom designs, develops and supplies complete system-on-a-chip solutions and related applications for digital cable set-top boxes and cable modems, high-speed local, metropolitan and wide area and optical networks, home networking, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), carrier access, residential broadband gateways, direct broadcast satellite and terrestrial digital broadcast, digital subscriber lines (xDSL), wireless communications, SystemI/O(TM) server solutions and network processing. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.

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This release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, and reflect management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by us based upon information available to us at this time. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will" and variations of these words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date hereof. Such information is subject to change, and we will not necessarily inform you of such changes. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.

Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with the BCM5434 product include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the recent significant economic slowdown in the technology sector and semiconductor industry; the timing and successful completion of technology and product development through volume production; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for Gigabit Ethernet networking products; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the loss of a key customer; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; changes in our product or customer mix; the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the availability and pricing of foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a timely manner; the effects of new and emerging technologies; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations; our ability to retain and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the numbers, with the capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; the effects of natural disasters and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.

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