Conexant Cuts Cost of Adding Bandwidth At Sites Throughout the Internet Infrastructure.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2000

New 10 Gbps Interconnect Device Will Help Ease Internet Bandwidth

Bottleneck By Reducing Costs Of Adding Equipment

At Central-Office, Point-Of-Presence And Portal Sites

Conexant Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT) today unveiled a solution that significantly cuts the costs of interconnecting high-speed networking equipment, co-located within 300 meters of each other in a service provider's central office (CO) or point of presence (POP). The device, the CX29900 very short reach (VSR) converter, supports the proposed 10 Gbps VSR interface standard, which uses parallel optics to provide a more economical alternative to serial-optical links for building the broader, higher-speed data pipes that are required to meet today's escalating bandwidth demands.

"VSR is rapidly gaining momentum as an important solution for today's Internet upgrade challenge," said Warner Andrews, vice president of strategic marketing for Conexant's Broadband Internetworking Systems business unit. "Our device immediately satisfies 10 Gbps OC-192 bandwidth demand and sets the stage for migrating to 40 Gbps OC-768 capabilities using the same technology."

Conexant has begun sampling its CX29900 VSR converter (VSRC) to leading networking and telecommunications equipment manufacturers who plan to deploy the cost-effective technology, including CIENA Corporation and others. Conexant's VSRC device complies with specifications that have won support from major communications companies who are collectively finalizing an implementation agreement within the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF). Conexant's VSR technology also was recently included in a Cisco 12000 Series Internet router in the industry's first public demonstration of 10 Gbps (OC-192) VSR interconnects. VSR links will be used for a wide variety of applications including high-speed gigabit and terabit routers, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) terminals and synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) add-drop multiplexers (ADMs).

The CX29900 VSRC device enables the development of 10 Gbps VSR modules that use parallel optics and have the same size and power consumption of 2.5 Gbps OC-48 interfaces while offering four times the bandwidth at substantial cost savings over a 10 Gbps serial link. It allows telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers (ISPs) to incorporate low-cost modules into their SONET/SDH equipment that can be interconnected by a parallel optical fiber cable for link distances up to 300 meters. This becomes particularly important to carriers and ISPs as their CO and POP architectures become more congested with Internet Protocol (IP) traffic and they must quickly and economically add new equipment, capable of handling higher data rates between shared routers and core switches.

Optical module supplier W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. will be working with Conexant and its key customers to provide the parallel optical module portion for a complete VSR interconnect solution. "We are excited to be working with Conexant on these next-generation interconnect solutions that will enable OC-192 connectivity at the lowest cost," said Craig Theorin, business leader of nLighten(TM) parallel optic data links at W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

Technical Details

The CX29900 device leverages existing Gigabit Ethernet technology and proven 12-channel parallel optics to provide a complete transceiver/multiplexer optical interface. Ten of the 12 channels transmit SONET framed data in a serial round-robin approach at 1.25 Gbps. Channel protection and error detection/correction are handled by the two auxiliary channels, which are transparent to the end-user in the point-to-point transmission of data. On the receive side, the data is recovered, re-timed, skew-compensated and presented to the SONET OC-192 framer.

Manufactured in a 0.18-micron complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process, the CX29900 device includes a highly integrated encoder, as well as serialization/deserialization (SerDes) and clock data recovery (CDR) circuitry. Its interfaces are compatible with production-ready optical modules and OIF's 16-bit, 622 MHz SONET framer interface proposal (OIF1999.102). It also includes glueless interfaces to Conexant's OC-192 SONET framer ICs and to Conexant's growing family of ring access controller (RAC) devices that provide interconnections with Cisco's dynamic packet transport (DPT) routers. Cisco's DPT technology is an emerging open standard for high-bandwidth, resilient ring network topologies that are aimed at optimizing metropolitan area networks (MANs) to carry large and rapidly growing volumes of packet traffic and services in a scalable, robust and cost-effective manner.

The CX29900 VSRC device is packaged in a 27mm plastic ball grid array (PBGA) and priced at $175 each in 1,000-unit quantities. Available in sample quantities now, the CX29900 will enter volume production in the first quarter of 2001.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements relating to future results of the company (including certain projections and business trends) that are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: global and market conditions, including, but not limited to, the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry and the markets addressed by the company's and its customers' products; demand for and market acceptance of new and existing products; successful development of new products; the timing of new product introductions; the availability and extent of utilization of manufacturing capacity; pricing pressures and other competitive factors; changes in product mix; fluctuations in manufacturing yields; product obsolescence; the ability to develop and implement new technologies and to obtain protection for the related intellectual property; the successful implementation of the company's diversification strategy; labor relations of the company, its customers and suppliers; and the uncertainties of litigation, as well as other risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those detailed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Other brands and names contained in this release are the property of their respective owners.

About Conexant Systems, Inc.

With revenues of approximately $2 billion per year, Conexant is the world's largest independent company focused exclusively on providing semiconductor solutions for communications electronics. With more than 30 years of experience in developing communications technology, the company draws upon its expertise in mixed-signal processing to deliver integrated systems and semiconductor products for a broad range of communications applications. These products facilitate communications worldwide through wireline voice and data communications networks, cordless and cellular wireless telephony systems, personal imaging devices and equipment, and emerging cable and wireless broadband communications networks. The company aligns its business into five product platforms: Network Access, Wireless Communications, Digital Infotainment, Personal Imaging, and Personal Computing. Conexant is a member of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 Indices. For more information, visit Conexant at www.conexant.com.

Conexant's Network Access Division provides semiconductor system solutions across a broad range of telecom and datacom infrastructure platforms and applications, including network processors, multiservices access processors, wide area network (WAN) solutions, digital subscriber line (xDSL) technologies, and optical networking IC solutions. By building upon today's broadest line of ICs and expertise in high-speed analog and digital connections, Conexant is well positioned to drive telecommunications infrastructure expansion. For additional information visit www.conexant.com.