Industry Breakthrough: Marvell Announces the First Quad-Port Transceiver to Support Both Copper and Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet Interfaces.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2001

Driving the Rapid Deployment of Gigabit Ethernet to the Desktop;

The Marvell Alaska(TM) Quad+ Device, with Built-In

Serializer/Deserializer, Enables High-Speed Data Communications for

LANs, MANs, SANs, and WANs

Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL), a technology leader in the development of extreme broadband DSP-based mixed-signal integrated circuits for communications signal processing markets, today announced another significant industry breakthrough at the Company's Investor Day in New York City. Marvell introduced the first fully integrated, quad-port Gigabit Ethernet transceiver to support IEEE-defined 10/100/1000BASE-T copper and 1000BASE-SX/LX fiber-optic Gigabit Ethernet interfaces in a single device.

Since May of 2000, Marvell has established itself as the undisputed technology and market leader in the Gigabit Ethernet PHY transceiver marketplace with its single, dual and quad-port Alaska(TM) family of devices. Marvell's Alaska family of Gigabit Ethernet transceivers, offering the industry's lowest power, smallest form factor, highest performance, and highest port density solutions in volume production, continue to drive the rapid deployment of Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop.

With the latest addition to the Marvell Alaska family, the Alaska Quad+ Gigabit Ethernet transceiver breaks new ground in offering the industry's first quad-port device with built-in Gigabit serializer/deserializer (SERDES), providing flexibility in the selection of copper or fiber-optic interfaces on a per port basis. This is an important feature since many Gigabit Switches contain a subset of gigabit fiber interfaces to serve as the link to the server, the corporate backbone or even as a long-distance extension beyond the LAN. The Marvell Alaska Quad+ transceiver is the only quad-port Gigabit solution available today that enables high speed data communications for copper-based LANs and fiber-optic-based MANs, SANs and WANs.

The Marvell Alaska Quad+ PHY transceiver, in fiber-optic mode, is the first quad-port 1000BASE-SX/LX Gigabit transceiver to incorporate the Ethernet-defined Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII). The device also supports the latest Marvell/HP-defined Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface (RGMII) specification allowing for reduced system cost and design complexity. With the industry's first implementation of RGMII for fiber-optic Gigabit networks, Input/Output (I/O) pin count is reduced by more than 50%, from 25 to 12 pins per port.

Leveraging Marvell's advanced DSP-based mixed-signal technology and power management techniques, the Alaska Quad+ PHY transceiver in 10/100/1000BASE-T copper mode achieves ultra low power dissipation of just over 1 Watt per port. In the 1000BASE-SX/LX fiber-optic mode, the Alaska Quad+ devices consume less than 250mW per port. By offering the industry's lowest power dissipation, the Alaska Quad+ PHY transceiver provides higher port count Gigabit Switches (up to 48 ports) for high-speed mixed-media data communications.

"Marvell is the `one-stop-shop' for high-density mixed-media Gigabit Switches," stated Weili Dai, Marvell's Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Data Communications Group. "For example, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch configured with twenty-two 10/100/1000BASE-T copper ports and two 1000BASE-SX fiber ports requires the use of only six Alaska Quad+ devices to implement the physical layer. Further, with the high integration and low power consumption of the Alaska Quad+ PHY transceiver, even higher port count mixed-media Gigabit Switches are now possible (up to 48 ports per line card)."

Added Dai, "With the addition of the fiber-optic quad-port device to our Alaska family of Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceivers, Marvell continues to be the `only game in town,' providing high-bandwidth Gigabit solutions for the LAN, MAN, SAN, and WAN networking markets. With Marvell's technology-rich end-to-end Gigabit Ethernet products, our customers can now build high-performance time-to-market solutions which can be quickly ramped into volume production."

Marvell Alaska Quad+ Transceiver Product Information

The Marvell Alaska Quad+ Gigabit Ethernet transceivers are single-chip monolithic CMOS devices each integrating four independent mixed-media Gigabit Ethernet transceivers. In copper mode, each transceiver performs all of the physical layer interface functions for 100/1000BASE-T Ethernet over Category 5 (CAT 5) twisted pair cable, and 10BASE-T Ethernet over CAT 3, 4 and 5 cable. The device performs PAM5, 8B/10B, 4B/5B, MLT3, NRZI, and Manchester encoding/decoding; digital clock/data recovery; stream cipher scrambling/descrambling; digital adaptive equalization for the receive data path, as well as digital filtering for pulse shaping of the line transmitter; Auto-Negotiation; and management functions.

In fiber-optic mode, the Alaska Quad+ device is compliant with the IEEE 802.3z specification. The device contains a PECL interface for connection to standard gigabit fiber-optic modules. The MAC/PHY interface options include GMII, RGMII, TBI, and RTBI. When in fiber-optic mode, the Alaska Quad+ PHY transceiver performs 8B/10B encoding and decoding per channel and operates in full-duplex mode.

In copper mode, Marvell's highly integrated Alaska Quad+ transceiver enables the use of "stacked" RJ45 modules (two rows high of RJ45 connectors mounted to the PCB board). With the small width of the RJ45 (14mm), the Alaska Quad+ devices accommodate 4 Gigabit ports per 28mm of PCB width, or twice as many ports per PCB area as compared to existing competitive solutions. The Alaska Quad+ PHY transceivers, combined with stacked RJ45 modules, maximize the port density of Gigabit Ethernet over copper switches and enable 48 ports per line card.

Availability

The Marvell Alaska Quad+ Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceiver is priced at $125 in 1K sample quantities.

About Marvell

Marvell comprises Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MTGL) and its subsidiaries, Marvell Semiconductor Inc. (MSI), Marvell Asia Pte Ltd. (MAPL) and Marvell Japan K.K. (MJKK). On behalf of MTGL, MSI designs, develops and markets integrated circuits utilizing proprietary Communications Mixed-Signal Processing (CMSP) and digital signal processing technologies for communications signal processing markets. MAPL is headquartered in Singapore and is responsible for Marvell's production and distribution operations. As used in this release, the terms "Company" and "Marvell" refer to the entire group of companies. The Company's proprietary CMSP technology combines custom digital signal processing algorithms to allow technology customers to store and move digital data on demand at high data access rates. The Company applies its technology to the data storage market and to the high-speed, or broadband, data communications market, where its products are used in network access equipment to provide the interface between communications systems and data transmission media. MSI is headquartered at 645 Almanor Ave., Sunnyvale, Calif., 94085; phone: [phone], fax: [phone].

Safe Harbor Statement of Marvell under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release may contain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our products, our industry, our markets, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," and variations of these words or similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, market results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements in this release.

Important risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause such a difference for Marvell in connection with its introduction of its Alaska Quad+ family of Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceivers for the data communications market include, but are not limited to, the timing, cost and successful completion of technology and product development through volume production; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt this product; the timing and results of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products; and, the timing, pricing, rescheduling, or cancellation of significant customer orders for our Alaska Quad+ Gigabit Ethernet transceiver products.

For other factors that could cause the Company's results to vary from expectations, please see the `Risk Factors' section of Marvell's Registration Statement on Form S-1 relating to the Company's initial public offering and the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2000.

We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.