Broadcom Samples Blutonium Family of All-CMOS Radio and Baseband Chips for Bluetooth Connectivity; Chip Family Features World's First All-CMOS Stand-Alone Bluetooth Radio Chip.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 2000

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq:BRCM), the leading provider of integrated circuits enabling high-speed broadband communications, today announced the Blutonium(TM) family of high-performance Bluetooth(TM) radio and baseband chips. By providing the last 100 feet of wireless connectivity, Broadcom intends to bring broadband access to mobile users and Internet appliances that are in need of instantaneous, ubiquitous connections to the Internet. Having established leadership in the market for broadband connections to and throughout the home, Broadcom is now extending that strength into the market for portable, high-speed personal connectivity.

The Blutonium family consists of a high-performance Bluetooth radio and two baseband processors targeted at specific applications, providing complete end-to-end Bluetooth solutions. The Broadcom(R) BCM2001 is the world's first high-performance Bluetooth radio manufactured in a standard digital CMOS process. The Broadcom Blutonium line also includes two baseband processors, the BCM2039 for applications requiring a standard Bluetooth interface and the BCM2019 for a more flexible interface to the host controller. Used with the BCM2001 radio, each baseband processor provides the basis for a wide variety of Bluetooth system solutions. Designed in digital CMOS, the Blutonium product line provides a clear integration path to a single-chip Bluetooth solution incorporating both RF and baseband sections.

"The Blutonium family represents the combination of very strong technology bases from our acquisitions of Innovent Systems and Pivotal Technologies earlier this year," said Dr. Henry T. Nicholas III, Broadcom's President and CEO. "Broadcom's leadership in RF CMOS technologies now expands to another exciting medium. Having proven our capabilities in transmitting broadband data across wire, we are now in a position to supply the most reliable conduit for the short-range transmission of data over thin air. The all-CMOS nature of the design allows for future integration of Bluetooth technology into other Broadcom product lines, extending our broadband access into the Personal Area Network."

"The secure, automatic and instantaneous sharing of data made possible by the Bluetooth protocol will enable scores of new products and applications for mobile data devices. We expect our products will help drive the explosive growth projected for this market," said K.C. Murphy, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's RF and Advanced Mixed Signal Business Unit. "The Blutonium family's combination of strong radio performance and high levels of integration in a low-cost CMOS process are essential for the widespread adoption of Bluetooth technology. We believe the only path to achieve industry price targets is through production in the lowest cost process technology, which is CMOS. Broadcom is demonstrating this now."

The BCM2001 is the first radio offering in Broadcom's Blutonium family of chipsets, including RF and modem functionality with a BlueRF interface. Providing radio performance that exceeds Bluetooth 1.1 specifications, the BCM2001's robust architecture is optimized to provide a strong balance between receiver sensitivity and interference rejection. Broadcom believes the globally available and crowded 2.4GHz band used by Bluetooth will experience high levels of interference in the future from other radio devices such as cordless phones, wireless LANs and other similar devices. The BCM2001 transceiver has been designed to work particularly well in this jamming environment, ensuring that Bluetooth data is transmitted and received reliably. Applications requiring strong interference rejection, such as mobile phones or laptop computers, are ideal candidates for the BCM2001. By integrating all filters and eliminating most off-chip components, the Broadcom radio offers the smallest footprint, thereby enabling small portable consumer products. BCM2001 samples are available now.

The BCM2039 is a stand-alone baseband controller for applications requiring a full, end-to-end Bluetooth solution. The chip provides all controller functions, including the protocol stack up to the Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP). This Host Controller Interface (HCI)-compliant solution supports point to point and multipoint connectivity, integrating several interfaces, including USB and high-speed UART. The BCM2039 is compliant with version 1.1 of the Bluetooth specification, featuring low power consumption and integrated memory, requiring no off-chip flash. BCM2039 samples are available now in a 100-pin FPBGA package.

The BCM2019 host-based controller represents a novel repartitioning of the Bluetooth architecture, providing a lower-cost baseband solution optimized for systems with the processor and memory already present in a host device. The highly flexible BCM2019 provides the ability to upgrade baseband software as future versions of the Bluetooth protocol become available. This architecture streamlines the standard Bluetooth protocol stack, minimizing the Bluetooth-specific hardware required in other baseband solutions. In addition, the device's use of memory on the host means that no external flash is required. BCM2019 samples are available now in a 48-pin PQFP package.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is the leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband digital transmission of voice, video, and data. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, the company designs, develops and supplies integrated circuits for a number of the most significant broadband communications markets, including the markets for cable set-top boxes, cable modems, high-speed local, metropolitan and wide area networks, home networking, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), carrier access, residential broadband gateways, direct broadcast satellite and terrestrial digital broadcast, optical networking, digital subscriber lines (xDSL) and wireless communications. Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This release may contain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us. 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 are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain 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 BCM2001, BCM2019 and BCM2039 products include, but are not limited to, 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 wireless networking; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in the foregoing 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; silicon wafer pricing and the availability of foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; 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; 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 effectiveness of our product cost reduction efforts; 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; changes in our product or customer mix; 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; general economic conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address; and other factors.

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Forms 8-K and 8-K/A, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

Broadcom(R), Blutonium(TM) and the pulse logo are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. Bluetooth(TM) is a trademark owned by Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB and licensed to participants in the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.