Marvell Rapidly Accelerates Deployment of Gigabit Ethernet with World's First and Only Quad-Port DSP Transceiver.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2000

Alaska(TM) Quad PHY Transceiver Sets New Industry Records,

Enabling Next-Generation Gigabit Switches: Ultra Low Power 

Dissipation of Just Over 1 Watt Per Port, Highest Gigabit

Port Density and Lowest System Cost

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 the industry's first and only fully integrated DSP quad-port 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet transceiver. Marvell's Alaska(TM) Quad transceiver enables next-generation Gigabit Switches with its ultra low power dissipation of just over 1 Watt per port, highest port integration and lowest system cost.

Marvell's Alaska Quad Gigabit Ethernet transceiver represents a significant technology breakthrough for the Gigabit Ethernet market, as it is the most complex and highly integrated mixed-signal DSP-based communications device ever developed. The Alaska Quad PHY transceiver achieves an unprecedented level of integration, incorporating mixed-signal, logic and DSP circuitry (over 4 million logic gates in one chip). As each Gigabit transceiver channel interfaces to 4 twisted-pair cables, the Alaska Quad transceiver combines the equivalent of 16 broadband communication channels in a single monolithic IC, representing the most advanced, highly integrated communications device on the market today.

Leveraging Marvell's advanced DSP-based mixed-signal technology and power management techniques, the Alaska Quad PHY transceiver achieves ultra low power dissipation of just over 1 Watt per port. This allows systems manufacturers to build higher port count systems which is critical for the rapid adoption of Gigabit Ethernet.

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, supporting hundreds of ports per system.

"Marvell's Alaska Quad PHY transceiver is a breakthrough solution for the Gigabit Ethernet industry. Combined with our integrated and stacked RJ45 solutions for Gigabit Ethernet, the Marvell Alaska Quad PHY transceiver will, for the first time, enable networking systems manufacturers to produce Gigabit switches with as many as 48 ports," stated Dan Bernstein, president of Bel Fuse, Inc.

Added John Kowalski, president of Pulse Engineering, "Pulse has been working closely with Tier One networking customers to implement high port density Gigabit Ethernet systems utilizing our integrated stacked RJ45 connector modules and Marvell's Alaska Quad transceiver."

The Alaska Quad Gigabit Ethernet transceiver also allows for reduced system cost and design complexity with the support of the latest Cisco-defined Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface (SGMII) and the Marvell/HP-defined Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface (RGMII) specifications. With the industry's first implementation of SGMII, Input/Output (I/O) pin count is reduced by 68%, from 25 to 8 pins per port. For example, a 48-port Gigabit system using SGMII reduces pin count by 816 pins. Also, the RGMII interface reduces I/O pin count by more than 50%, from 25 to 12 pins per port.

"With the introduction of the industry's first and only fully integrated quad-port Gigabit Ethernet transceiver, Marvell has once again raised the technology bar for the Gigabit Ethernet industry," stated Weili Dai, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Communications Group. "Since Marvell entered the Gigabit Ethernet market in May of this year, we have set significant industry milestones, including the world's lowest power, smallest footprint single-port Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceiver; the only 0.18 micron Gigabit PHY transceivers in volume production today; the first to integrate the Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) function, enabling the bridging of copper and fiber networks; and the world's first dual-port Gigabit PHY transceiver." Added Dai, "We will continue to push the technological envelope to allow our customers to develop the highest performance communications solutions available in the marketplace."

According to Cahners In-Stat Group, the growth rate of Gigabit Ethernet over copper is more than 300% per year, with an estimated 50 million total copper Gigabit Ethernet connections shipping in 2004. "With high-performance, highly integrated devices such as Marvell's Alaska Quad transceiver, we anticipate an acceleration in the deployment of Gigabit Ethernet to mainstream desktop networking," said Lauri Vickers, industry analyst with Cahners In-Stat Group.

Marvell Alaska Quad Transceiver Product Information

The Marvell Alaska Quad Gigabit Ethernet transceivers are single chip monolithic CMOS devices each integrating four independent Gigabit Ethernet transceivers. 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 Alaska Quad transceiver is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3 standard and includes the Physical Medium Dependent (PMD), Physical Medium Attachment (PMA) and Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS).

The Marvell Alaska Quad PHY transceivers also support Auto-MDI/MDIX at all three Ethernet data rates (10, 100 and 1000 Mb/s). This feature simplifies network installation and reduces installation costs. Further, the Alaska Quad devices perform 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.

Availability

The Marvell Alaska Quad Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceiver samples (88E1040) are currently available.

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 initially focused its core technology on the data storage market. The Company more recently applied its technology to the high speed, or broadband, data communications market by introducing products that 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 Gigabit Ethernet over copper transceiver 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 the Alaska Quad Gigabit Ethernet over copper 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 July 31, 2000.

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