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Broadcom Delivers Higher Quality Video, Audio and Mobile TV for Mobile Phones

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 03:03 CST

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 3GSM World Congress -- Broadcom Corporation , a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it has integrated its VideoCore(R) multimedia co-processor software into its recently announced CellAirity(TM) platform for mobile devices. Manufacturers of mobile phone handsets can take advantage of Broadcom's multimedia technology in a range of new products that integrate audio and video capabilities on par with those found in some of the most advanced portable media players available. This functionality can be added to mobile phones and other devices with minimal impact on battery life and reduced development time using the Broadcom(R) CellAirity platform.

Mobile phone manufacturers are seeking to capitalize on growing consumer interest in advanced multimedia capabilities for portable devices by developing handsets that include high resolution cameras, the ability to capture and play digital music video files, mobile TV streaming capabilities, among other features and functions. Broadcom's CellAirity mobile platform now integrates the same level of multimedia capabilities found in portable media players, simplifying the process of adding these features to next generation mobile phone handsets while enabling handset manufacturers to quickly deliver a range of price points and video capabilities in their products.

"Broadcom is proud to be the leading provider of multimedia technology for high performance mobile devices," said Dr. Robert Swann, Director of Marketing for Broadcom's Mobile Multimedia business unit. "By integrating this technology into our CellAirity platform, we have enabled phone manufacturers to easily add extremely high quality multimedia capabilities with a battery life to be envied."

CellAirity Multimedia Platform Features

The CellAirity multimedia mobile platform enables a wide range of multimedia applications with the highest performance solutions in the industry, providing up to VGA quality video, support for up to 8 megapixel cameras and DVB-H/DMB mobile TV. The Broadcom solution also consumes less power than competing solutions, enabling playback of high-quality MPEG-4 video at CIF resolution for less than 35 milliwatts (mW), which is approximately 6 times less power than most other solutions. In addition, by enabling MP3 music playback capability at less than 15 mW, the CellAirity platform provides handsets with over 30 hours of music playback.

With the integrated "TV-out" functionality, phones based on the CellAirity mobile platform will also be able to play back videos directly from the phone on external television screens or VCR/DVD recorders. The platform includes support for the latest audio and video codecs, including H.264, featuring a programmable co-processor architecture that enables easy software upgrades as codec technology evolves.

CellAirity also provides a complete scalable VideoCore multimedia software solution pre-integrated into the platform. This allows the support of media accelerators integrated into the baseband for cost-effective entry-level multimedia as well as the full range of VideoCore co-processors with a common software interface. This approach enables software reuse and scalability which in turn allows manufacturers to leverage software development efforts across multiple phone models and price points.

VideoCore Product Details

VideoCore features a power-efficient, two-dimensional DSP architecture that is designed for low-power multimedia processing. Unlike most competing solutions, VideoCore is fully programmable, enabling developers to program and re-program different applications in software rather than requiring new chip designs for each new product. This flexibility enables device developers to quickly bring new media players and multimedia handsets to market to address the growing interest in these applications. For further details on Broadcom's VideoCore family visit http://www.broadcom.com/videocore.

Availability

Broadcom's CellAirity mobile platform, with integrated multimedia capabilities including the BCM2702, BCM2722 and BCM2724 chips, is now available to early access customers and will be demonstrated at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, from February 13 to 16, 2006. Visit Broadcom's booth in the Fira de Barcelona in Hall 1, stand C78.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Our products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. Broadcom provides 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(R).

Broadcom, one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies with annual revenue of more than $2.5 billion, is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at http://www.broadcom.com/.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

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. 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 mobile multimedia products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for mobile multimedia applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those 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; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; our dependence on a few significant customers for a substantial portion of our revenue; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; 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 effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; 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; 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; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly 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 new and emerging technologies; 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 quality of our products and any remediation costs; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of recent events; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.

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 for any reason.

Broadcom(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), the Connecting everything logo, VideoCore(R) and CellAirity(TM) are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Broadcom Trade Press Contact Broadcom Technical Contact Jeremy Hyatt Robert Swann Corporate Communications Manager Director of Marketing, Mobile +1-949-926-5971 Multimedia jhyatt@broadcom.com +1-44-1223-381352 rems@broadcom.com Broadcom Investor Relations Contact T. Peter Andrew Vice President, Investor Relations +1-949-926-5663 andrewtp@broadcom.com

Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Mobile & Wireless

CONTACT: Trade Press, Jeremy Hyatt, Corporate Communications Manager,+1-949-926-5971, jhyatt@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew,Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, orTechnical, Robert Swann, Director of Marketing, Mobile Multimedia,+1-44-1223-381352, rems@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation

Web site: http://www.broadcom.com/videocore

Web site: http://www.broadcom.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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