Conexant Delivers EdgeMaker Network Processor Software with Enhanced Integrated Voice and Data Capabilities.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2000

EdgeMaker Software Now Available For Use With Edge Stream Processor,

Enabling On-Demand Provisioning Of Broadband Services

Conexant Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT) Tuesday announced the availability of its EdgeMaker software for the CX27510 Edge Stream Processor (ESP) family, delivering the industry's first complete network processor solution to include multi-service application firmware.

In addition, the company has enhanced the voice over asynchronous transfer mode (VoATM) capability of the EdgeMaker(TM) network processor software, improving the integrated voice and data capabilities.

The combined ESP and EdgeMaker platforms provide system vendors with the core building blocks necessary for rapidly developing customer premise and carrier network equipment supporting integrated voice and data services over Internet Protocol (IP), ATM and frame relay using time division multiplexing (TDM) or digital subscriber line (DSL) connections.

EdgeMaker firmware services are off-the-shelf and feature-rich, requiring no additional programming by the customer. Subsequent releases of EdgeMaker will provide the flexibility to accommodate new feature requirements or to address evolving networking standards. Also available is a complete set of development tools for improving time-to-market.

EdgeMaker supports a wide variety of wide-area network (WAN) access applications including integrated access devices (IADs), wireless infrastructure equipment, ATM/frame relay internetworking devices, DSL equipment and multi-service edge concentrators.

"Unlike most semiconductor vendors developing network processors, we are delivering today what networking OEMs need for real designs of integrated multi-service edge equipment going into production in the near future," said Bill Giudice, vice president and general manager of Conexant's Broadband Internetworking Systems group.

"We have over 40 design wins and opportunities for the EdgeMaker/ESP solution, many with tier one communications systems equipment companies developing branch office routers, cellular base stations, voice gateways and wireless WAN access devices among others."

All EdgeMaker services share a high-level application-programming interface (API) with a common look and feel, enabling developers to speed time-to-market across multiple applications. Customers can easily upgrade to new feature sets, standards and services as market requirements evolve for a wide variety of broadband voice and data services.

EdgeMaker's comprehensive set of development tools includes a complete software simulation environment with assembler, debugger and simulation models to support board-level hardware simulations for rapid product development.

ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) 2 Enhancements for VoATM

Conexant recently enhanced EdgeMaker firmware to improve the transmission of delay-sensitive, compressed VoATM networks. The performance has been optimized to support a DS3 (44.736 Mbps) of voice under a wide range of different compression rates. Similar to its full-featured AAL5 and high-level data link Control (HDLC) services, AAL2 is structured to deliver class-of-service (CoS)-based packet queuing on a per-virtual-circuit (VC) basis.

EdgeMaker delivers a consistent interface and feature set across all packet services, enabling common support for differentiated services (DiffServ) across the product. For customer premises equipment (CPE), EdgeMaker provides the industry's highest level of system integration through the layering of AAL1, AAL2 and AAL5 over internal inverse multiplexing over ATM (IMA) and T1/E1 services.

Other VoATM features that are inclusive with the EdgeMaker AAL2 application are common part sublayer (CPS) switching and support for Traffic Management 4.0. The AAL2 application can pack up to 255 voice sub-channels into a single VC supporting more than 4,000 VC channels.

The integration of a full-featured, high-density VoATM service targets the EdgeMaker application at a rapidly growing segment of the market. "Voice over AAL2 and asynchronous DSL (ADSL) are two of the fastest-growing segments of the voice-and-data-convergence market," said Tom Medrek, vice president of marketing of the Broadband Internetworking Systems group.

"The ability to integrate AAL2, VoATM and voice over ADSL applications with our other EdgeMaker services on a single chip with off-the-shelf firmware can significantly reduce cost, power consumption, board space requirements and design time."

A Complete Solution

Conexant's EdgeMaker application will be sold as an integrated network processor/firmware solution with the company's CX27510 ESP. The CX27510 ESP provides a "common card" architecture that allows communications equipment vendors to support on-demand provisioning of all EdgeMaker services -- HDLC for frame relay and point-to-point protocol (PPP), as well as AAL1, AAL2, AAL5 and IMA -- using a single circuit board design.

This capability enables equipment vendors to accelerate their time-to-market, while allowing service providers to rapidly provision and activate any service, down to a digital signal level 0 (DS0), on any link, at any time, with no network downtime and without a "truck roll."

The CX27510 ESP has a universal test and operations interface for ATM (UTOPIA) interface with cell and packet transfer capabilities, and a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) interface for host management and data transfer.

It provides flexible support for a wide range of circuit-based applications with up to 16 TDM interfaces that connect seamlessly to T1/E1 framer chips, or up to 32 T1/E1 links in a computer telephony configuration. Its low power dissipation is suitable for high-volume WAN access applications.

Conexant's network processor family may also be combined with products from the company's portfolio of physical-layer Internet infrastructure solutions, including the OptiPHY family of fiber-optic networking devices. This allows Conexant to offer a level of systems integration and software upgradability that is unmatched by any other communications semiconductor company.

Conexant offers a wide variety of ATM, T1/E1 and T3/E3 carrier, optical networking (SONET/SDH), DSL and multi-service voice and data access concentration products. These products, combined with network processors, deliver high-performance solutions tailored for the Internet infrastructure, broadband access and next-generation packet-based telecommunications networks.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing for the EdgeMaker software application, available now, ranges from $10,000 for a single service to $75,000 for all five services. The ESP SimMaker(TM) hardware and software development tools are available for $10,000. The CX27510 Edge Stream Processor is priced from $109 to $185 in volume, depending on port density.

About Conexant Systems Inc.

With a revenue run-rate 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.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news 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; timely completion of Year 2000 modifications by the company and its key suppliers and customers; 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.

Definition of Technical Terms

Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) - See Digital Subscriber Line.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) - High-speed networking technology that allows transport of fixed-length cells without allocating physical channels for specific connections. ATM supports simultaneous transfer of voice, data and video traffic, and works in both LAN and WAN environments.

ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) - The standards layer that allows multiple applications to have data converted to and from the ATM cell. A protocol used that translates higher layer services into the size and format of an ATM cell.

ATM Adaptation Layer 1 (AAL1) - AAL functions in support of constant bit rate, time-dependent traffic such as voice and video.

ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (AAL2) - AAL functions in support of the bandwidth-efficient transmission of delay-sensitive, compressed voice.

ATM Adaptation Layer 5 (AAL5) - AAL functions in support of variable-bit-rate, delay-tolerant, connection-oriented data traffic requiring minimal sequencing or error detection.

Application Program Interface (API) - A programmatic interface used for interprogram communications or for interfacing between protocol layers.

Broadband - A service or system that allows users to access the carrier networks at high speeds (above T1/E1).

Class of Service (CoS) - A mechanism by which different traffic types and users are divided into categories of network usage and treated differently during peak periods, ensuring that a critical traffic stream or a customer paying for premium service gets priority over other types of traffic.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) - A wireless networking standard that uses spread spectrum technology. One of the leading contenders for the standard of third-generation (3G) wireless systems, which will offer sophisticated broadband services.

Common Part Sublayer (CPS) Switching - An ATM switching function involved in the conversion of user data into ATM cells while maintaining the integrity and identity of user data.

Differentiated Services (DiffServ) - An Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) model for determining the level of priority a data packet receives when routed through the network.

Digital Signal Level 0 (DS0) - The 64 Kbps rate that is the basic building block for both the North American and European Digital Hierarchies.

Digital Signal Level 3 (DS3) - The North American Digital Hierarchy signaling standard for transmission at 44.736 Mbps that is used by T3 carriers. DS3 supports 28 DS1s plus overhead.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) - A broadband communications technology used for high-speed Internet access. Symmetric DSL (SDSL) supports traffic at the same speed to and from the user site. Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) pairs a high-speed download rate with a slower upload rate.

Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) - A device located in the central office into which end-user DSL modems connect. The device takes a number of DSL subscriber lines and concentrates these to a single ATM line.

Edge Concentrators - Equipment that is designed to concentrate ATM and frame relay traffic on the edge of a wide-area network (WAN) switching network.

Frame Relay - A packet-switching protocol for wide-area networks that uses statistical interleaving of data at rates of up to 2 Mbps. Frame relay is defined at the link layer, setting up virtual connections over variable-length frames.

High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) - An ITU-TSS link layer protocol standard for point-to-point and multi-point communications.

Integrated Access Device (IAD) - The IAD is typically located at the customer premises and performs the task of integrating multiple traffic types over a single access line.

Internet Protocol (IP) - The most important standard of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite on which the Internet is built. TCP/IP is the language governing communications between all computers on the Internet and provides the set of instructions that dictates how packets of information are sent across multiple networks.

Inverse Multiplexing over ATM (IMA) - A protocol for carrying multiple clusters of T1/E1 lines over a single ATM connection.

Network Edge - The area from the customer premises to the central office, where access to the high-speed backbone occurs.

Network Processors - Flexible, highly integrated, scalable and programmable processors that make it possible to add new functions to a switch, router or other core network equipment at virtually any time through software, rather than hardware, modifications.

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) - A local bus standard developed by Intel Corp. PCI is a 64-bit bus, though it is usually implemented as a 32-bit bus. It can run at clock speeds of 33 or 66 MHz. At 32 bits and 33 MHz, it yields a throughput rate of 133 Mbps.

Physical Layer (PHY) - The first of seven layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model, which is an architectural model of data communications protocols that subdivides overall data-communications processes into seven functional layers: 1) physical, 2) link, 3) network, 4) transport, 5) session, 6) presentation and 7) application. Each layer performs a specific data-communications task with increasing levels of sophistication. The physical layer governs hardware connections and byte-stream encoding for transmission.

Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) - A protocol for communication between two computers using a serial interface, typically a personal computer connected by phone line to a server.

Router - A system that controls message distribution between multiple paths in a network.

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) - A worldwide standard for transmitting synchronous data on optical and electrical media. SDH has a few overhead byte and some multiplexing scheme differences as compared with SONET, but it operates in the same manner.

Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) - A North American standard for transmitting synchronous data on optical and electrical media. It is used as a standard for the backbone and access telecommunications networks transmitting voice and data.

T1/E1 - T1 is the U.S. telecommunications standard that transmits voice at 1.544 Mbps. E1 is the European standard for T1.

Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) - A technique for transmitting a number of separate data, voice and/or video signals simultaneously over one communications medium by quickly interleaving a piece of each signal one after the other.

Traffic Management (TM) - The aspect of the traffic control and congestion control procedures for ATM. ATM layer traffic control refers to the set of actions taken by the network to avoid congestion conditions.

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) - One of the major new third-generation (3G) mobile communications systems being developed within the framework defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) known as IMT-2000.

Universal Test and Operations Interface for ATM (UTOPIA) - A method to pass ATM traffic over multiple T1/E1 links while keeping ATM quality of service and optimizing usage of bandwidth.

Virtual Circuit (VC) - A communications channel that provides for the sequential unidirectional transport of ATM cells.

Voice over ATM (VoATM) - A method of packetizing voice in order to send it over an ATM network. ATM is a cell-based transport that provides inherent prioritization of time-sensitive traffic like voice.