Centillium Bolsters Leadership in the Optical Transceiver Market Expanding Fiber-to-the-Premises Semiconductor Portfolio.

FREMONT, Calif. -- Industry's First Fully Integrated 2.5Gbps Optical Transceiver Product Families Target GPON, EPON, SONET and Enterprise Applications

Centillium Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTLM), a leading provider of broadband access solutions, bolsters its last mile broadband access leadership in the optical access transceiver market, by expanding its fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) semiconductor product portfolio. The company's newest optical transceiver chipset families, Zeus 2 and Apollo 2, complement the existing industry-leading optical access product portfolio, strengthening Centillium's position as the only provider of end-to-end FTTP solutions. The Zeus 2 optical transceiver chipsets are the Company's foray into the GPON and EPON markets, and the Apollo 2 optical transceiver chipsets are targeted at the SONET transport and enterprise applications.

Centillium has leveraged its advanced IP and optical networking expertise to create the industry's first fully integrated optical transceiver product families in CMOS technology that provide optical module vendors and service providers transmission rates of up to 2.5Gbps with an extremely high level of reliability, increased flexibility, faster time-to-market and reduced bill of materials (BOM) cost.

Optical technology enables the transmission of data, voice and video as light waves along fiber, allowing a significantly higher bandwidth than conventional copper wire. Escalating demand for bandwidth-intensive services such as multi-channel video delivery, video-on-demand, media streaming, interactive gaming and teleworking is driving global deployment of passive optical network (PON) access infrastructure including the high-growth GPON and EPON markets as well as the point-to-point high-speed data market. This, in turn, has fueled the need for deployment of highly reliable, low cost transceiver modules that are used for conversion between optical and electrical signals, a critical technology in the delivery of premium "triple play" services.

"Over the next five years, the PON transceiver market will grow at 44 percent CAGR as network service providers worldwide transition from voice to a multi-media/IP TV business model. This transition will accelerate deployment of PON infrastructure," said Steve Rago, principal analyst, Broadband and Digital Home Practice, iSuppli. "Centillium's newest transceiver chipsets enable OEMs to create a base platform from which to address the global PON market. A silicon family that addresses multiple applications in a single footprint should aid OEMs in reducing their development costs and producing lower cost products for the service providers."

Centillium's innovative next-generation optical technology enables the integration of a broad range of functionality into a small, standards-compliant package without the need for a separate microcontroller. The high level of integration and functionality provides cost savings for optical module vendors in design, manufacturing, inventory and testing, as well as long-term stability of the laser.

"Cost efficiencies associated with network operations are becoming critical to service providers as they increase optical deployments to meet growing demand for higher throughput," said Didier Boivin, vice president of marketing, Centillium Communications. "Centillium's newest additions to its transceiver product line provide advanced features such as highly accurate Digital Diagnostic Monitoring (DDM) to give service providers clear-cut visibility into network operation, a key factor in maintaining tight control over the health of their networks."

Both the Zeus 2 and Apollo 2 transceiver chipsets are manufactured in CMOS technology, and integrate a laser driver, limiting amplifier, automatic laser power control, DDM and an on-board EEPROM.

The Zeus 2 transceiver chipsets enable the transmission of bi-directional burst-mode data traffic for rates up to 2.5Gbit/second. These chipsets support CO and CPE applications for GPON, EPON and A/BPON infrastructures and comply with IEEE 802.3ah and ITU-T G.983/G.984 specs.

The Apollo 2 transceiver line enables the transmission of point-to-point, continuous mode data traffic for rates up to 2.5Gbit/second, covering Fast Ethernet, OC3/STM-1, OC12/STM-4, Gigabit Ethernet, and up to OC48/STM-16.

Additional technical details and specifications on each of these products are available at http://www.centillium.com/html/optical_phys.htm.

About Centillium Communications

Centillium Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTLM) is a leading innovator of high performance, cost-effective semiconductor solutions that give consumers, enterprises and service providers the winning edge in broadband access. The company's complete, end-to-end system-on-chip solutions accelerate development time-to-market for "last mile" products with Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies. Centillium products include digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits and related software for DSL and FTTP central office and customer premises equipment and VoIP solutions for carrier- and enterprise-class gateways and consumer telephony. Centillium is a global company with headquarters in Fremont, CA. Additional information is available at www.centillium.com.

Centillium Communications, Centillium's logo, Apollo, Zeus and Centillium's logo are all trademarks of Centillium Communications, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other products or service names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

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