Ubicom Delivers StreamEngine Technology for Home, Small Office Router Market; Solves Quality and Usability Issues in Real-Time, Interactive Applications.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Ubicom(TM), Inc., a leading provider of communications processor and software platforms, today announced the immediate availability of its new software development platform, SDK6.3. Building on the powerful architectural capabilities in the company's popular IP3023(TM) communications processor, this platform introduces the unique StreamEngine(TM) technology which enables the development of differentiated broadband routers with proven breakthrough WLAN performance and excellent user experience in real-time, interactive applications.

StreamEngine technology ensures a consistently high quality on-line experience through the use of powerful Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms. The key to making this useable for a small office or home is Intelligent Stream Handling, a patent-pending algorithm which autonomously manages the flow of traffic going to the Internet, without the need for user configuration. As a result, real-time, interactive traffic, such as gaming, VoIP and video teleconferencing, are automatically given the appropriate priority when other users and applications use the network. In addition, Intelligent Stream Handling minimizes the impact of large packet, lower priority traffic on latency-sensitive traffic and eliminates delays caused by DSL or cable modem connections. StreamEngine effectively eliminates the lag and breakup problem in online gaming and other voice/video applications.

"The growing popularity of interactive applications such as VoIP, on-line gaming, and peer-to-peer networking has stretched the limits of existing home and SOHO routers beyond what they were initially designed to handle," said Doug Spreng, CEO of Ubicom. "Our new StreamEngine technology enables OEMs to develop best-in-class wireless routers with differentiated capabilities to address these new uses and unprecedented ease-of-use at a price point that will be attractive to home and small office users."

In today's broadband environment the impact of just one data stream running in parallel with a real-time application can be quite dramatic. Using NetIQ's Chariot VoIP test measurement over an xDSL connection, it can be demonstrated that introducing a single FTP transfer in the upstream direction will reduce the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for a G.729 VoIP codec from a very good 4.4 to a completely unacceptable level of 1 immediately. Using the same scenario with StreamEngine enabled, the voice quality remains consistently high with an MOS of 4.4, and maintains that level even with multiple FTP streams.

Increasingly common sources of background traffic that can interfere with real-time traffic are popular file sharing programs such as Kazaa, BitTorrent and eMule. By automatically reprioritizing this type of traffic when the network connection is being used for other applications, routers built using the Ubicom SDK6.3, enable these programs to be left online without affecting other users. This is an important feature since file sharing programs reward clients that are available to upload more data. The Ubicom SDK6.3 also provides the performance and scalability to support and validate the thousands of simultaneous IP connections that can be established in peer-to-peer networks.

"It is clear that the widespread deployment of broadband and wireless connectivity is driving the adoption of interactive applications, which require new solutions for usability, consistent quality of experience, and performance," said Sanjay Iyer, senior analyst at the Linley Group. "Building on the strengths of its communications processor architecture, Ubicom's integrated software suite provides a significantly improved user experience in demanding interactive applications as well as the headroom to meet future wireless needs."

Key Features and Benefits of Intelligent Stream Handling

Intelligent Stream Handling comprises a number of innovative new capabilities including:

--Automatic Traffic Classification: Ubicom's software has the unique capability of continually monitoring and classifying traffic on the Internet connection, and dynamically adjusting the way individual streams are handled at any point in time. This enables latency-sensitive traffic, such as voice, games or even web page requests, to be given a relatively high priority. As a result, they are sent to their destination first, reducing delay and jitter. Less time-sensitive traffic such as email or file transfers are de-prioritized. Since Intelligent Stream Handling operates automatically without the need for user configuration, it is able to effectively make use of 255 priority levels for fine-grained control of the packet streams.

--Rate Matching: A process called "rate matching" determines the bandwidth of the broadband uplink automatically so that it can shape the traffic to smooth the flow between the router and the Internet. This eliminates the potential bottlenecks and delays that can be caused by "bursty" data traffic.

--Dynamic and Adaptive Link Fragmentation: Low priority traffic is also fragmented to reduce the latency and jitter that can be introduced by long packets. Intelligent Stream Handling adjusts the fragment size based on the uplink speed and also stops fragmenting long packets when no latency-sensitive traffic is waiting to be sent, to improve the overall efficiency of the broadband link and ensure voice can sustain a high MOS rating.

Ubicom's IP3023 Communications Processor

Ubicom's IP3023, the processing core of the Ubicom StreamEngine technology, has been proven to deliver more than twice the performance of competitively priced ARM9(R) and MIPS4000(R) processor-based SOC solutions. The IP3023 offers unprecedented performance by using a unique communications processor architecture. Memory-to-memory instructions enable packets to be processed directly in on-chip memory, eliminating caches and buffers, allowing the processor to move inputs and outputs directly from memory to I/O in real time.

Deterministic hardware multithreading allows threads to operate independently, as if each were a separate processor, so that multiple I/Os can be supported in software. Software I/O implementation removes hardware I/O functions out of silicon into software and eliminates on-chip registers and buffers, dramatically improving memory access times.

Ubicom's Software Development Kit

The IP3023 wireless communications processor is supported by a comprehensive software development kit which includes the ipOS multithreaded operating system, a Windows based Integrated Development Environment, commercial grade GNU tool chain, and development board. Ubicom's SDK6.3 release supports all Atheros 802.11 radios including SuperAG(TM), delivering the highest performance radio and processor combination, with WLAN throughput of up to 90Mbps.

Pricing and Availability

The Ubicom SDK 6.3 is available now and is priced at $10,000. The IP3023 is in production and is priced at $10 each in 100,000 piece quantities.

About Ubicom, Inc.

Ubicom(TM), Inc. develops communications processor and software platforms that address the unique demands of real-time, interactive applications in small office and home environments. The company provides optimized system-level solutions to OEMs for a wide range of products including wireless routers, access points, VoIP gateways, streaming media devices, print servers and other network devices. At the heart of the platform, Ubicom's unique multi-threaded processor design, real time operating system and application level solutions combine to ensure a high quality user experience with unprecedented ease-of-use. With headquarters in Mountain View, California, Ubicom also has offices in Belgium, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Ubicom, the Ubicom logo, IP3023 and StreamEngine are trademarks of Ubicom, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

(1) In voice communications, particularly Internet telephony, the mean opinion score (MOS) provides a numerical measure of the quality of human speech at the destination end of the circuit. The scheme uses subjective tests (opinionated scores) that are mathematically averaged to obtain a quantitative indicator of the system performance.