Vitesse Expansion Continues to Better Support Customers Worldwide; Three Key Positions Added to Sales and Distribution.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

CAMARILLO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2002

Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (Nasdaq:VTSS) is pleased to announce the addition of three key positions to its Sales organization. Vice President of Sales for Channels and Partners Phil Richards, Director of Sales for EAM (Europe, Africa and Middle East) Siegmar Hausberger, and Director of Sales for Asia/Pacific Mitchell Tang bring extensive experience and vision to the Company. The addition of these strategic positions exhibit Vitesse's commitments to expand internationally and better support customers worldwide. (Vitesse has also recently expanded its distribution channels with the addition of Memec in Japan and Nu Horizons in North America. Please visit the Vitesse website at www.vitesse.com for more information.)

Phil Richards is the new Vice President of Sales for Channels and Partners, and comes to Vitesse with an extensive semiconductor and systems background. Richards' career started as a semiconductor design and applications engineer while attending college at Foothill and La Salle University. Since then, Richards has accumulated over 15 years of related industry experience running independent sales companies, representing corporations such as NEC, Toshiba, Panasonic and Texas Instruments, and holding sales management positions with several semiconductor companies including Intel. Just prior to joining Vitesse, Richards was Senior Director of Asia Sales for Sun Microsystems, Microelectronics division for three years and was responsible for all semiconductor, CPU modules and board sales. Prior to joining Sun Microsystems, he was Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Alliance Semiconductor.

Richards' responsibilities at Vitesse include the management of the Company's worldwide channels, including distribution and representative sales programs. He will be working in close alignment with Vitesse's current field sales management team including the new Director of Sales for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Siegmar Hausberger joins Vitesse as the new Director of Sales for EAM (Europe, Africa and the Middle East). Hausberger also comes to Vitesse with extensive industry experience. Hausberger worked for Hewlett-Packard as a sales engineer, GE/RCA/Intersil and Harris as a Marketing Manager for analog and telecom products, Maxim GmbH and TelCom Semiconductor as a General Manager, and most recently Conexant/Mindspeed Technologies as the Sales Director for Central and South Europe. Hausberger was educated at the Technical University of Vienna.

Hausberger will be responsible for managing Vitesse's European sales activities, with a special emphasis on fostering relationships with the Company's channel partners. The planned result is an increase in the number of personnel specifically focused on applications support for Vitesse's European customers. Hausberger will be working very closely with Phil Richards to achieve this goal, and to help Vitesse continue to expand and improve their worldwide customer support.

Mitchell Tang, Director of Asia/Pacific Sales, comes to Vitesse from AMCC via MMC Networks. He was in charge of Asia/Pacific Sales for AMCC's Network Processor, Traffic Management and Switch Fabric products for the past four years. Prior to that he was an engineering manager for Asante Technologies and Network Application Technology in the Switch/Router development. He began his career in engineering roles with Texas Instruments, Intermetrics, and Ferranti. Tang holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Houston. Tang will be setting up a Vitesse office in Hong Kong where the APAC team will be reporting to him.

About Vitesse

Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation is a leading designer and supplier of innovative, high-performance integrated circuits (ICs) and optical modules used in next generation networking and optical communications equipment. The Company's products address the needs of Enterprise, Access, Metro, Core, and Optical Transport network equipment manufacturers who demand a robust combination of high-speed, high-service delivery and low-power dissipation in their products. In concert with its broad communications product portfolio, Vitesse also develops ICs for storage area networking and enclosure management. Vitesse is headquartered in Camarillo, Calif., and operates two fabrication facilities, one in Camarillo and one in Colorado Springs, Colo. Company and product information can be found on the web at www.vitesse.com or is available by calling 1-800-VITESSE.