Virata Launches Two New Processors Designed to Address All Segments of the Emerging Residential Gateway Market.

Business/Technology Editors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2001

Multiple Products in Different Market Segments Will Enable Virata

to Expand its Current Installed Base of More than 6 Million

Communications Processors Worldwide

Virata(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: VRTA) today unveiled two new Helium(TM) family members -- the Helium 210-80 and the Helium 100 processors -- specifically designed to meet the various price, performance and feature requirements of broadband modems, bridges and routers. Utilizing a high-performance dual 80 MHz engine, the Helium 210-80 delivers the raw performance required to run sophisticated routing protocols, such as Virata's integrated firewall and security software, and also features a rich array of I/O capabilities for wireless home networking. Complementing the Helium 210-80, the Helium 100 was designed to meet the low-cost requirements of the broadband modem market, where price/performance is critical for winning business with service providers.

"Virata is the only company that can deliver both the processing power and the critical firewall, security and auto-configuration software, which will help enable a mass retail market for broadband services," said Duncan Greatwood, vice president of marketing for Virata. "Our proven Integrated Software on Silicon(TM) (ISOS(TM)) platform uniquely integrates all of these capabilities into one complete solution that our customers can use to bring products to market quickly and cost-effectively."

About the Helium 210-80 and Helium 100

With the addition of the Helium 210-80 and Helium 100, Virata's customers can offer a wide variety of products targeted at multiple market segments. Because all of the Helium family, including the new Helium 210-80 and Helium 100, use Virata's ISOS software, there is a minimal amount of software development and integration required to develop multiple products for different market segments.

Based on its performance and feature set, the Helium 210-80 meets the needs of the mid-range and high-end residential and small business bridge and router markets and is ideal for running applications such as security, firewalls and high-speed networking. Delivering an array of features, Helium 210-80 includes dual 80 MHz processors, integrated 10/100 Mbit Ethernet PHY and supports up to 31 Utopia (ATM or DSL) ports. In addition, the Helium 210-80 delivers an extremely flexible residential gateway platform with a range of high-performance interconnects that enable plug-and-play wired and wireless gateways for the home or office. These interconnects include MII and PCMCIA, enabling the simple addition of wired and wireless networking PHYs such as HomePNA, HomeRF, 802.11b and Bluetooth.

The Helium 100 complements the Helium 210-80 by delivering the perfect solution for the low-end DSL to Ethernet bridge. In this market, the critical requirement is cost and the Helium 100's leading-edge .18 micron design and high software/hardware integration meets this need, while still benefiting from the performance and extensive functionality of Virata's ISOS platform.

The Helium 210-80 and Helium 100 are expected to be in volume production in the fourth quarter of calendar 2001 and are priced at $22 and $18, respectively.

The Market-Leading ISOS Platform

ISOS is one of the most comprehensive software suites available today and has been deployed in more than six million broadband wireline (e.g. DSL) and wireless installations. Virata's newest ISOS 8.0 incorporates software support for the DSL Forum and OpenDSL auto-configuration guidelines and specifications; Web-based configuration and management; Frame Relay including Frame Relay to ATM internetworking support; expanded MIBs (Management Information Bases); SNMP v2 and v3; as well as ATM Traffic Management features such as EPD (Early Packet Discard) and PPD (Partial Packet Discard). These new features enhance the existing capabilities of ISOS which include: ATM traffic shaping, switching, segmentation and reassembly; ATM Adaptation layers, such as AAL-0, 2, and 5; UNI signaling 3.0, 3.1, 4.0; ILMI 4.0 and auto-provisioning extensions; CBR, VBR-rt, VBR-nrt, and UBR; and full I.610 management implementation.

In addition, ISOS supports the following capabilities: framed data for HDLC and Ethernet; PCI and USB interfaces; Protocol encapsulation (e.g., PPP over ATM, PPP over Ethernet, Bridged RFC 1483, RFC 1577, and LEC); bridging and routing functions including spanning-tree, RIP-1, RIP-2, DHCP, DNS, and NAT; tunneling functions (PPTP and L2TP); SNMP v1; wide-area codecs (ADSL, V.90); and voice functions (AAL-2 CPCS and AAL-2 SSCS for CopperCom, Jetstream and I.366 versions). Other key features of ISOS include drivers for popular third party WAN DSL codecs (i.e., Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Conexant); and Virata's industry leading voice-processing software, vCore, with DTMF, echo cancellation, and G.7xx codec suite. In addition, Virata will continue to extend future versions of ISOS into new areas of communications processing, including additional security (e.g. IPSec VPN support); UPnP; MPLS and other advanced routing functions.

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 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 principal member of the ATM Forum, Bluetooth SIG organization, the DSL Forum, HomePNA, ITU, MPLS Forum, WC3 consortium, OpenDSL 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.

Note to Editors: Virata is a registered trademark, and ISOS, Integrated Software on Silicon and Helium 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-K for the year ended April 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.