Conexant Partners With Cisco, Will Be Lead Semiconductor Supplier to Help Drive Emerging Spatial Reuse Protocol Standard.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 1999--

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--   Conexant will provide Cisco with key enabling semiconductor
     solutions for its Spatial Reuse Protocol (SRP)-based Dynamic
     Packet Transport (DPT) products.

--   Conexant also will help promote SRP as an open standard for
     carrier-class internetworking in Internet Protocol (IP)-based
     networks, and will make its SRP-standard products widely
     available to equipment manufacturers.

Conexant Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT) today announced it has been selected to provide semiconductor solutions for Cisco Systems' Dynamic Packet Transport (DPT) family of packet-optimized transport solutions for the rapidly growing Internet infrastructure.

Conexant is the lead semiconductor supplier in Cisco's new DPT Partners Program, and will help promote DPT as an open industry standard aimed at redefining metropolitan area network architectures so they can handle IP traffic and services in a scalable, robust and cost-effective manner.

Conexant will supply Cisco and other OEMs with media access devices that implement the SRP, a new media-independent access control (MAC) layer protocol used in DPT products. SRP enables an IP-optimized ring network topology and provides the base functionality for node addressing, packet stripping, bandwidth control (traffic management) and control message propagation on the packet ring.

Conexant's products will be used in a broad range of SONET products, cable head-end equipment, routers and other networking platforms. They will enable the cost-effective addition of carrier-class, data-optimized functionality to the current 622 Mbps (OC-12), 2.4 Gbps (OC-48) and 10 Gbps (OC-192) network infrastructure.

Introduced in February 1999, DPT delivers high-bandwidth, resilient fiber rings that are optimized to carry large and rapidly growing volumes of packet traffic. DPT significantly reduces cost and complexity by eliminating equipment layers, enabling plug-and-play operations, and increasing bandwidth efficiency four-fold as compared to alternative solutions. Additionally, SRP-based DPT products combine IP internetworking capabilities with fast protection switching to provide a robust transport platform for enhanced IP services such as voice and video over IP, and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The increased reliability and efficiency enabled by SRP technology is of great interest to cable network operators for data services, and to metropolitan and regional area transport providers, Internet Service Provider (ISP) points of presence (POPs), and large enterprises.

"Conexant's strength in high-performance networking technologies and its broad portfolio of network access products provides a strong foundation for our joint development efforts," said David Powell, product manager for Cisco's Optical Internetworking Division. "We look forward to working together with Conexant and our other partners to establish DPT as an open industry standard for high-speed IP transport over optical networks."

Most networks today are based on a combination of technologies, such as IP and ATM, or IP and Frame Relay, or SONET and DWDM. Due to their complexity, these hybrid networks are typically expensive to deploy and manage. DPT technology enables the creation of purely IP-based networks, providing a reliable and cost-effective alternative for supporting the future bandwidth demands of the high-speed IP transport infrastructure. It also provides the quality of service (QoS) required to transport emerging services such as voice over IP (VoIP) and tiered data services.

"This initiative exemplifies our commitment to increase the bandwidth available for feature-rich content on the Internet," said Warner Andrews, division director for Broadband Internetworking Solutions marketing in Conexant's Network Access Division. "We are already dramatically increasing access bandwidth through our leadership xDSL offerings. Additionally, we enable convergence through our widely-deployed VoIP-capable AnyPort offering. SRP brings carrier-class features to IP transport, thus enabling end-to-end transport of new high-value IP services."

In a separate but related initiative, Cisco and Conexant also are joining forces to reduce the cost of short-reach interconnect at 10 Gbps using parallel optics. Conexant has joined the Optical Internetworking Forum and will be working with appropriate forums to make SRP an open specification for the networking industry.

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 of the related intellectual property; the successful implementation of the company's diversification strategy and restructuring plan; 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.

With revenues of more than $1.2 billion, Conexant is the world's largest independent company focused exclusively on providing semiconductor products 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 Nasdaq-100 Index, which represents the largest and most active stocks listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market across major industry groups.