Broadcom Expands the Market for Merchant Switch Silicon With New StrataXGS® 4 Switching Architecture

Next Generation 65nm Switch Family Delivers High Performance, Scalable Solution Enabling a Single Hardware Platform for Enterprise, Data Center and Service Provider Networks

LAS VEGAS, April 29, 2008 -- Interop 2008 -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced the StrataXGS® 4 -- the company's next generation family of single-chip 65 nanometer (nm) switches. This new product family enables OEMs to build single high-density systems that meet the cost, power, performance and scalability requirements of service provider, data center and enterprise markets using a merchant silicon solution. Broadcom's 4th generation StrataXGS architecture utilizes a low power, 65nm CMOS process technology to enable the scalability necessary for data center 3.0 applications, the security required for enterprise networks, as well as the protocols and quality of service (QoS) needed to implement next generation service provider networks.

As today's network continues to evolve, bandwidth requirements for service providers and data centers are growing at an unprecedented rate. Traditionally, equipment manufacturers have relied on custom application specific ICs (ASICs) or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for their high- end networking products in these markets. This approach, however, has high development and product costs, a lengthy time-to-market, and results in a product that consumes too much power and is difficult to manage. Legacy networking technologies are being phased out in favor of a converged Ethernet- based virtualized network, and as a result, system providers are now confronted with new demands and challenges. New equipment must be developed and brought to market quickly with dramatically reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and must retain support for critical and intricate protocols, as well as maintain high availability (HA) and advanced QoS. Broadcom is the first silicon provider to effectively address these requirements in a single high performance platform that reduces development costs and time-to-market; an accomplishment that can help to facilitate the industry transition from custom ASICs to merchant silicon.

Announced today is the Broadcom® StrataXGS 4 multi-layer switch family in 65nm that includes two new products: the BCM56624 and BCM56720. A third product, the BCM56820 was announced in November 2007 and completes the product family. StrataXGS 4 products offer a new solution to OEMs designing modular, stackable and fixed form factor equipment for the service provider, data center, and enterprise markets. Using a platform approach for design flexibility, StrataXGS 4 products allow OEMs to meet the requirements of on- demand networks including the seamless migration of servers and storage subsystems across the data center, while eliminating the cost of deploying and maintaining separate, disparate fabrics such as Fibre Channel, InfiniBand® and others. For service providers, the StrataXGS 4 architecture facilitates a converged network by collapsing voice, video and data onto a single IP backbone that supports both wired and wireless connectivity.

"Broadcom's next generation StrataXGS 4 architecture is unprecedented in its advancements in integration, speed, feature set and density," said Martin Lund, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Network Switching line of business. "Our StrataXGS 4 products are built upon the success of three generations of field-proven StrataXGS architecture and we anticipate that they will fuel a new class of high-density systems that would benefit next generation networks, and ultimately, millions of end-users worldwide."

BCM56624: High-Density, Multi-Layer GbE Switch

The Broadcom BCM56624 is a 48-port Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) plus 4-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) solution that is the most scalable, feature rich 48+4 GbE switch available today. The new 65nm chip provides carrier-class features such as IPv4 and IPv6 routing, as well as advanced metro encapsulation protocols and advanced security mechanisms such as IPFix and large access control lists (ACLs) for user and flow-based authentication. The BCM56624 also includes advanced QoS features for service provider applications with a new dynamic adaptive memory buffer technology that provides better QoS and network performance. It also features large external address and security tables that scale to meet the demands of high performance equipment at the core of the network.

BCM56720: High-Density Switch Fabric

The BCM56720 is a 4th generation StrataXGS HiGig™ switch fabric, also designed in 65nm, that provides half a terabit of packet switching capacity on a single chip and scales to achieve multi-terabits of capacity on a single backplane. It is compatible with the new StrataXGS 4 series of products as well as products from earlier StrataXGS architectures. This switch fabric also raises the bar for stacking capability using the company's industry- leading HiGig stacking protocol and service aware flow control (SAFC) to provide OEMs with the industry's highest performance stackable solution.

Broadcom's SAFC technology is a key feature in all StrataXGS 4 products that makes it possible to build converged networks. SAFC provides reliable delivery of latency sensitive network traffic, such as storage, and extends priority access to time-critical applications including clustering, voice and video. Data center traffic can now be converged onto a single unified network fabric eliminating the need for separate networks, and results in a data center that is smaller, consumes less power and is easier to manage and cool.

BCM56820: High-Density, Low Power 10GbE Switch

Announced in November 2007, the BCM56820 is a 24-port, multi-layer 10GbE switch solution for the data center and other high performance applications. Also designed in 65nm, the BCM56820 offers significant per port power savings over previous generation 10GbE switch products, providing greater density at a lower power. This enables cooler operations for a 'green' data center, scalability for social networking and online gaming, reliability for enterprise applications and QoS for streaming video.

Green by Design

Broadcom and its foundry partners are leveraging today's most advanced lithographic node for manufacturing semiconductors. By designing solutions in 65nm process technology, Broadcom is able to provide significant environmental benefits over competitive solutions in 90nm and 130nm processes by enabling lower power consumption, smaller size and higher yields while providing higher levels of integration that result in fewer components. Additionally, Broadcom supports the current industry initiatives to remove lead (Pb) and other hazardous materials, such as halogens like bromide and chlorine, from all products. With the depth and breadth of Broadcom's advanced portfolio of market-proven IP, the company is able to drive innovative new products to market while reducing the impact on human health and the environment.

Availability and Pricing

Broadcom's StrataXGS 4 switch products, including the BCM56624, BCM56720 and BCM56820, are now sampling in volume to customers. Pricing is available upon request.

The StrataXGS 4 family is fully supported by Broadcom's widely adopted software applications programming interface (API), which is common across the entire product line and supported by multiple third-party software vendors, as well as Broadcom's FASTPATH® application layer software. Reference designs are also available to help speed time-to-market and include software, schematics, layout files and related documentation.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.

Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2007 revenue of $3.78 billion, and holds over 2,600 U.S. and 1,200 foreign patents, more than 7,450 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.

Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com.

Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:

All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward- looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the ability of our StrataXGS 4 products to facilitate the industry transition from custom ASIC products to merchant silicon and to fuel a new class of high-density systems, and the impact of our products on human health and the environment. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.

Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with BCM56624, BCM56720 and BCM56820 StrataXGS® 4 switch products include, but are not limited to:

  • trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated;
  • the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for enterprise data center and service provider networking applications;
  • our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets;
  • our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; and
  • general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations.

Additional factors that may cause Broadcom's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:

  • delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets;
  • the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory;
  • the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order;
  • our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost-effective and timely manner;
  • intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk;
  • our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans;
  • the quality of our products and any remediation costs;
  • changes in our product or customer mix;
  • the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales;
  • the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts;
  • problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration;
  • the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations;
  • competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products;
  • the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification;
  • the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test capacity and raw materials;
  • fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products;
  • the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities;
  • the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; and the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal.

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement, except as required by law.

Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo, StrataXGS®, FASTPATH® and HiGig™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Infiniband® is a trademark of System I/O, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Heather A. Roberts
Media Relations Manager
408-922-8195
hroberts@broadcom.com

Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Vice President, Corporate Communications
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Enterprise Networking 



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