Virata Delivers Complete ``Home Router Kit'' With New Processor, Reference Designs, and Software Suite.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2001

New Nitrogen 210-80 Processor and Reference Designs Will Enable

Customers to Bring Innovative and Cost-Effective

Home Router Products Quickly to Market

In conjunction with today's launch of its new Nitrogen(TM) 210-80 communications processor, Virata(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:VRTA) has unveiled a "Home Router Kit" consisting of the necessary hardware, software and reference designs customers will need to bring home routers quickly and cost-effectively to market. Virata's "Home Router Kit" features the new Nitrogen 210-80 processor, reference designs for Ethernet, 802.11b, HomeRF and HomePNA; and a special version of Virata's Integrated Software on Silicon(TM) (ISOS(TM)) software stack that includes a high-performance IP and routing stack, as well as the standard ISOS features such as an integrated firewall, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support, and auto-configuration capabilities.

"We asked our customers what they needed to win in the home gateway space - and designed our new 'Home Router kit' to deliver those requirements and more," said Duncan Greatwood, vice president of marketing for Virata. "As we believe this represents the most complete, capable and cost-effective home router solution on the market, we expect the Nitrogen 210-80 solution to be extremely well received by existing and potential customers."

About Home Routers

Home routers deliver high-speed access to data and voice, run high-bandwidth applications such as multi-user gaming and video streaming, and provide the home with secure firewall protection, content filtering and allow for access restrictions. Home routers in development today are stand-alone devices connected to stand-alone broadband DSL, cable or wireless modem/routers. The combination of the two devices represents a residential gateway, with the broadband modem providing the high-speed Internet connection and the home router allowing PCs and other network devices to be locally networked and to share the Internet connection. Virata expects to find its Nitrogen 210-80 processor powering home routers, while its Helium, Beryllium and Aluminum product families will be found on the DSL modem side of the residential gateway. Virata believes that having Virata-Enabled(TM) ISOS solutions in both devices provides its customers with maximum interoperability, the highest level of configuration, and a common platform that will enable customers to easily expand their product portfolio from DSL modems or home gateways to emerging single-box multi-services gateways.

A home router enables the IP address supplied by the service provider to be shared by home network devices using a process called Network Address Translation (NAT). With NAT in the router, each of the PCs, printers, scanners, etc. on the home network are assigned a private network address and the router converts this to the address supplied by the service provider. This approach to connection sharing is platform independent, allowing Windows, MAC and UNIX/LINUX computers all to share a connection. This is also done seamlessly without user intervention and eliminates the current need to have one computer on at all times.

Home Routers using Virata's Home Router Kit are further enabled by Virata's support of the new UPnP standard. UPnP enables UPnP devices, PCs, digital cameras, printers and white appliances on the network to automatically communicate with each other and to the home router in order to bring new services into the home. Microsoft recently identified UPnP in the "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP" Application Specification, as a technology that network dependent applications are required to implement in order to receive the "Designed for Microsoft WindowsXP - Optimized" status. Virata has integrated UPnP into its ISOS platform to enable any Virata-enabled gateway or router to be auto-detected by PCs running Windows ME and Windows XP and to automatically communicate with any UPnP-enabled equipment on the home network.

About Virata's Reference Designs

Currently, Virata has four home networking reference designs available to address the different needs of its Nitrogen 210-80 customers, with additional reference designs planned that will handle future capabilities, such as BlueTooth and VPN. All of the current reference designs are fully compatible with the Nitrogen 210-80 communications processor and Virata's flagship Helium(TM) 200, 210 and 210-80 communications processors and are fully supported in ISOS and Virata's embedded Web server solution.

--  Multi-Port 10/100 Ethernet reference design with Kendin
    Operations, a Micrel, Inc. subsidiary - RD6300: this reference
    design enables broadband equipment manufacturers to provide
    multiple routed 10/100 Ethernet ports on a low-cost system for
    greater network flexibility and manageability.

--  802.11b reference design with Intersil - RD6500: developers can
    get up and running quickly to create products that support
    wireless networking activity in the home or office.

--  HomeRF reference design with Proxim - RD3900: allows router and
    gateway suppliers to rapidly and more easily integrate HomeRF
    capabilities into products for the home DSL market. HomeRF is a
    wireless standard that is designed to meet the unique needs of the
    home, providing superior security, interference resistance,
    prioritized voice transmission, high-speed data, and quality of
    service for music and video.

--  Single-port Ethernet Mac and PHY reference design with RealTek
    Semiconductor - RD6350: allows an Ethernet MAC and PHY to be
    connected to the External Peripheral Bus (EPB) of Virata's chips.
    Attaching an Ethernet MAC and PHY to this bus allows other devices
    and multi-port PHYs to utilize the MII interface creating
    opportunities for a wide range of product realizations. Providing
    a simple second MAC/PHY option to the Nitrogen 210-80 delivers a
    low cost solution to a home router connecting to any broadband
    modem (cable or DSL.)

--  HomePNA 2.0 reference design with Agere Systems Home
    Wire(TM)chipset - RD3600: enables the development of home
    phoneline networking devices that allow consumers to
    simultaneously share Internet access on multiple PCs, transfer
    files, and share peripherals such as printers using existing,
    in-home phone lines.

About the Nitrogen 210-80 Communications processor

With the addition of the Nitrogen 210-80 communications processor, Virata's customers will be able to develop a wide range of products targeted at the home router/ home gateway product space. The Nitrogen 210-80 features a dual 80MHz ARM7 processor architecture; and contains a network processor that controls and manages the direct connections to Ethernet and USB, and handles Ethernet bridge filtering and advanced DMA functions. The chip also includes a protocol processor that runs Virata's high-level bridging and routing software as well as management and control functions such as embedded web management and UPnP software.

Virata has included an embedded 10/100 Mbit Ethernet MAC with an MII interface for connecting to alternate home networking technologies and multi-port Ethernet switch chips. The Nitrogen 210-80 can interface to a DSP to allow Voice over IP solutions and using the on-chip PCMCIA interface, support I/O cards such as 802.11 Wireless LAN.

About Virata

Virata provides communications software and semiconductors to manufacturers of DSL, wireless, satellite and other broadband networking equipment. Virata's suite of processor-independent software products provide developers with complete, field-proven implementations of networking functions, including MPLS and web servers, removing the need to write and validate new software code.

Virata also pre-integrates its extensive suite of communications software with its powerful and cost-effective communications processors to create Virata-Enabled ISOS products. These ISOS solutions assist customers in developing a diverse range of broadband wireless and wireline equipment including DSL modems, gateways, routers, and integrated access devices targeted at the voice and high-speed data network access and customer premises markets. Virata's products also help equipment manufacturers to simplify product development, reduce the time it takes for products to reach the market and focus resources on product differentiation and improvement.

Virata is a member of the ATM Forum, Bluetooth SIG organization, the DSL Forum, HomePNA, ITU, MPLS Forum, WC3 consortium, and UPnP Forum. A publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Virata was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information, please visit www.virata.com.

Virata is a registered trademark, and ISOS, Integrated Software on Silicon, Helium and Nitrogen, and Virata Enabled are trademarks of Virata. All other trade, product, or service names referenced in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Except for historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Due to increasing uncertainties in the company's market, the company's degree of visibility on future revenues and earnings and associated confidence level in forecast information is less than in past quarters. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, those relating to general business and economic conditions, evolving industry standards, the pace of development and market acceptance of our products, those of our customers and the DSL market generally, the rate of DSL deployments, commercialization and technological delays or difficulties, changes in customer order patterns and the product volume of such orders, the financial condition of our customers, risks of customer loss, the impact of competitive products and technologies, competitive pricing pressures, manufacturing availability and risks, dependence on third party suppliers, the uncertainties associated with international operations, the possibility of our products infringing patents and other intellectual property of third parties, risks due to limited protection of our intellectual property, product defects, costs of product development, our ability to attract and retain employees, the company's ability to extract value from acquisitions, manufacturing and government regulation and other risk factors listed from time to time in the reports and other documents Virata files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation, the report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal first quarter ended July 1, 2001. Virata assumes no obligation to revise or update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.