Silicon Spice Introduces the World's First Single Chip Communications Processor for Carrier-Class Voice Gateways and Access Concentrators.

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

Voice on the Net Conference

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2000

Single Chip Achieves 240 Channels of Packet Telephony, 10 Times

the Voice, Fax and Modem Channels of Previous DSP Solutions

Key Technology to Become Cornerstone for New Broadcom Carrier Access Business Unit, Upon Completion of Silicon Spice Acquisition by

Broadcom Corporation

Silicon Spice Inc., which is being acquired by Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), today introduced CALISTO(TM), the world's highest performance, single-chip communications processor for carrier-class voice gateways, soft switches and remote access concentrators/remote access servers (RAC/RAS). CALISTO is available today and is sampling to key customers.

CALISTO derives its name from the novel, patent-protected signal processing architecture called Configurable ALgorithm-adaptive Instruction Set TOpology, which is implemented within the chip. This new architecture provides significantly greater signal processing throughput in a more efficient silicon implementation. CALISTO provides over 3.3 GMACs of signal processing horsepower and 1.4Mbytes of high-speed memory which translates into 240 packet telephony channels on a single chip. This new chip replaces up to 10 traditional DSP discrete components, enabling the convergence of voice and data services over a unified data network with the highest density of voice channels per square inch and per watt in the industry.

CALISTO has been explicitly designed for the complex packet processing, signal processing, and high-speed memory requirements for next generation carrier and broadband access networks. The CALISTO chip manages all the compute-intensive tasks including: echo cancellation, voice/fax and data modem signal processing, packetization, cellification, delay equalization and telephony protocols within packet telephony applications such as carrier gateways, broadband access gateways and remote access concentrators.

The innovative adaptive instruction set architecture, along with Silicon Spice's C-compiler and Integrated Development Environment (IDE), shortens the product development cycle dramatically. Customers' applications can be directly compiled from C-code and can rapidly achieve high levels of performance. CALISTO's real-time operating system (RTOS) enables voice and data Service Providers to dynamically provision CALISTO for Any Service Any Port (ASAP) configurations ranging from 240 channels of carrier class G.711 packet telephony to 60 channels of full Universal Port.

"This new class of devices, which Forward Concepts defines as access communications processors, provides a 10X improvement over traditional DSP technology," said Will Strauss, President of Forward Concepts, a leading analyst for the digital signal processing industry. "Access communications processors will have a profound affect in carrier-class voice gateways and will set new performance benchmarks for DSPs much like network processors have done for the data networking industry."

While traditional DSP solutions require extensive support from overhead components including programmable devices, micro-processors, and additional memory, the integrated approach taken by Silicon Spice eliminates this overhead, greatly reducing total system power and IC real estate requirements. System architects evaluate performance by using benchmarks based on density (channels per square inch) and power dissipation (milliwatts per channel). A CALISTO-based system achieves over 400 channels per square inch. CALISTO also delivers an industry-leading power consumption of less than 10 milliwatts per channel.

"We are committed to enabling a new generation of high-density carrier-class voice gateways, broadband access voice gateways, and voice-enabled remote access concentrators supporting hundreds of thousands of packet telephony channels," said Vinod Dham, Silicon Spice's Chairman, CEO and President, who will become Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's newly created Carrier Access Business Unit upon completion of the acquisition, expected within the next 30 days. "With its superior performance and flexibility, CALISTO dramatically reduces our customers' system power and cost, through the integration of the signal processing, packet processing and memory resources required for running hundreds of channels on a single device."

CALISTO's 239-pin BGA has been specifically designed for maximum density placements of multiprocessor configurations. The CALISTO device is augmented by a comprehensive IDE that includes an Optimizing C Compiler, RTOS and state-of-the-art Multi-processor Debug Environment. The IDE is supported by a quad CALISTO Evaluation Module (EVM) or a software simulator.

CALISTO is sampling today and will be in full production by the end of the year. An Early Access Program (EAP) is available to reduce customer development effort and accelerate their time to market. The EAP consists of an OC-3 Reference Design, Broadcom's proven xChange(TM) Packet Telephony software and multiple IDE development site licenses each with hardware EVMs.

About Silicon Spice

Silicon Spice is a leading developer of semiconductors and software for converging voice and data networks built on Internet technology. Its silicon-level systems provide a platform that enables networking and telecommunications systems companies to accelerate time-to-market and deliver the highest density multi-service solutions. Silicon Spice has 126 employees and is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with sales offices in Mountain View, Boston and Stockholm.

Silicon Spice and Calisto are trademarks of Silicon Spice Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. Broadcom(R), the pulse logo and Broadcom xChange are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and certain other countries.