Harris Semiconductor and Orckit Communications sign VDSL modem development pact.

MELBOURNE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 1996--Harris Semiconductor and Orckit Communications of Tel Aviv, Israel, have signed an agreement to pursue development of a Very high bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) chipset to provide businesses and residences with broadband access over a Fiber-To-The-Curb (FTTC) network.

Under the agreement, Harris (NYSE:HRS) will apply its mixed-signal design expertise while Orckit will contribute Digital Signal Processing (DSP)-based DSL modem technology.

The combination of the two companies' technical development experience will allow them to provide a cost-effective, highly integrated, high-end VDSL solution. Within the FTTC architecture, the chipset will address the last section of copper cabling to the subscriber premises.

Harris and Orckit will also cooperate within the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) T1/E1.4 and ETSI TM6 (European Telecom Standard Institute) committees to promote VDSL interoperability.

Many telecommunications service providers and system manufacturers view VDSL, which can provide downstream data rates as high as 52 megabits per second (Mbps) via the existing copper twisted pair infrastructure, as the most viable DSL solution for last-mile high-data rate delivery of digital multimedia services. These services could include high-speed Internet access, video conferencing, video-on-demand and broadcast digital television.

Orckit demonstrated its ORspeed system, the first-ever VDSL modem, at Telecom 95. The ORspeed modem is capable of transmitting 13, 26 or 52 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream over typical distances of 4,500 feet, 3,000 feet or 1,000 feet respectively over a standard twisted copper wire pair. Orckit has designed several DSP-based High bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL) and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modem integrated circuits.

With an extensive portfolio of high-speed analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, Harris is a leader in high-accuracy, low-noise data conversion technology for wireline and wireless communications. In addition, Harris is widely recognized as a world leader in monolithic subscriber line interface circuits (SLICs) for telecommunications line cards.

This agreement represents the goal of both Harris and Orckit to provide technological and marketing leadership for the emerging industry of high-speed digital subscriber line communications.

Harris' semiconductor sector manufactures discrete semiconductors and integrated circuits and focuses on the communications, multimedia and power control markets. The company has sales offices worldwide and manufacturing facilities in Palm Bay, Fla.; Mountaintop, Pa.; Findlay, Ohio; Dundalk, Ireland; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Harris, with worldwide sales of more than $3.4 billion, is focused on four major businesses: electronic systems, semiconductors, communications and Lanier Worldwide office equipment.

Information about Harris is available over the Internet at http://www.semi.harris.com or via AnswerFax at 407/724-7800. For specific inquiries on VDSL, direct e-mail questions to Craig Edwards, [e-mail].

Orckit Communications is a privately held telecommunications company that develops and manufactures a wide range of high-speed local loop communications systems that take advantage of state-of-the-art digital signal processing and VLSI technologies.

Orckit's product line includes HDSL, ADSL and VDSL transmission systems. These products utilize existing copper telephone lines and enable transmissions at high data rates for multimedia, fast Internet access and ATM-to-the-home service. Orckit was founded in 1990 and has its headquarters at 38 Nahalat Yitzhak St., Tel Aviv, 67448, Israel; phone [phone].

Orckit's U.S. offices are located at 2 Enterprise Drive, Suite 303, Shelton, Conn. 06404, 203-926-0776, or toll free, 1- 888-9-Orckit. Orckit's Web site is http://www.orckit.com and can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail].

CONTACT: Orckit Communications

The Benjamin Group Inc.

Kelly Odle or Lisa Zwick, 714/753-0755

E-mail: kodle or [e-mail]

or

Harris Semiconductor

John S. Allen, 407/729-4928

or

FS Communications

Jeff Feldman, 415/691-1488