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Broadcom Expands 54g(TM) Wi-Fi(R) Family With Integrated USB 2.0 Solution

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 October 2004, 09:00 CDT

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation , a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced its latest 54g(TM) wireless solution with integrated universal serial bus (USB) 2.0 capabilities. The new chip enables manufacturers to add high-performance 802.11g and 802.11a/g Wi-Fi(R) connectivity to any device with a USB 2.0 port(1), including PCs, computer peripherals, and consumer electronic devices. The new solution supports Broadcom's SecureEZSetup(TM) and 125 High Speed Mode(TM) technologies -- allowing consumers to easily extend their high-speed wireless networks with a broad range of next generation products.

"Broadcom's new AirForce(TM) BCM4320 enables the addition of high-speed Wi-Fi into any device with USB 2.0 capabilities," said Bill Bunch, Senior Product Line Manager for Broadcom's Home & Wireless Networking Business Unit. "In addition to making possible a cost-effective, low-power wireless module for PCs, the BCM4320 makes it easy for customers to enable streaming multimedia in a variety of next-generation consumer electronic platforms."

The Broadcom(R) AirForce BCM4320 integrates an 802.11a/g MAC/baseband, a USB 2.0 transceiver, a processor and memory into a single package, providing manufacturers with a small, low-power and cost effective wireless module. The integrated processor and memory allow the BCM4320 to run all wireless functions on-chip. System designers can therefore add Wi-Fi(R) capabilities to printers, digital cameras, set-top boxes, gaming machines and stand-alone USB devices without burdening the host processor. Combined with Broadcom radio ICs, the resulting highly-integrated chipset reduces the bill-of-materials (BOM) costs by up to 50 percent versus alternative solutions.

Chip Supports Popular Ease-of-Use and Performance Features

Products equipped with the BCM4320 support SecureEZSetup technology, a unique software wizard that allows even first-time Wi-Fi users to set up a secure wireless network in just a few mouse clicks. The SecureEZSetup wizard prompts the user with two simple questions and then automatically configures the Service Set Identifier (SSID) and WPA passwords/keys to establish a secure connection between a wireless device and router. Unless they know the WPA password, other devices are prevented from accessing the wireless network once security is activated.

The BCM4320 also offers 125 High Speed Mode, Broadcom's standards-plus technology that enhances devices based on 54g technology. Products with 125 High Speed Mode achieve up to 40 percent greater throughput than typical standard IEEE 802.11g systems without impacting the performance of neighboring wireless LANs. This provides residential customers with additional bandwidth for multimedia applications, such as sharing digital photos or transferring audio and video files between devices throughout the home.

125 High Speed Mode is currently the most popular standards-plus high-speed Wi-Fi technology available(2). The technology can be found in Wi- Fi equipment from Linksys, Belkin and Buffalo, as well as notebook PCs from eMachines, Gateway and HP. Several other brands of computer, consumer electronics and multimedia equipment will soon include 125 High Speed Mode, keeping pace with consumer demand for higher-performance Wi-Fi capabilities.

Availability

The AirForce BCM4320 is in volume production. Broadcom offers two reference designs (the BCM94320UG and the BCM94320UAG) that provide customers with a complete development kit to streamline the design cycle of products based upon the new solution. Featuring Broadcom's OneDriver(TM) software, each reference design supports the Microsoft(R) Remote NDIS (RNDIS) standard, which means that PCs with the Windows(R) operating system are pre-configured with wireless-enabled host drivers. In addition, Broadcom's solutions are compatible with the Communication Device Class (CDC) specifications published by the USB Forum, allowing embedded USB systems to be pre-configured for wireless.

Broadcom's AirForce Wireless LAN Product Family

Broadcom's high performance AirForce wireless LAN product line includes 54g, the world's most popular Wi-Fi technology. In addition to transceivers that provide IEEE 802.11g and dual-band 802.11a/g solutions, Broadcom integrates wireless network processors, communications technologies and OneDriver software solutions into reference designs that speed customer time to market. Broadcom partners are developing 54g-enabled computers, routers, peripherals, phones, broadband modems and a variety of consumer electronics devices.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. We design, develop and supply complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions incorporating digital, analog, radio frequency (RF), microprocessor and digital signal processing (DSP) technologies, as well as related hardware and software system-level applications. Our diverse product portfolio addresses every major broadband communications market and includes solutions for digital cable and satellite set-top boxes; high definition television (HDTV); cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) modems and residential gateways; high-speed transmission and switching for local, metropolitan, wide area and storage networking; home and wireless networking; cellular and terrestrial wireless communications; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway and telephony systems; broadband network and security processors; and SystemI/O(TM) server solutions. These technologies and products support our core mission: Connecting everything(R). Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and 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, 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 our AirForce wireless LAN 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, 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 wireless networking applications; 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; 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; 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; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; 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; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our products and services; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; 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; 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 effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; 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, 125 High Speed Mode(TM), 54g(TM), AirForce(TM), OneDriver(TM), SecureEZSetup(TM) and SystemI/O(TM) are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. Wi-Fi(R) is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Microsoft(R) and Windows(R) are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

(1) The USB 2.0 specification includes speeds of 1 Mbps (Low), 12 Mbps

(Full) and 480 Mbps (High). Devices must run high-speed USB to

support the 54 Mbps data rates of 802.11g and 802.11a/g.

(2) According to The NPD Group, September 2004.

Broadcom Trade Press Contact

Henry Rael

Sr. Communications Specialist

949-926-5734

hrael@broadcom.com

Broadcom Business Press Contact

Bill Blanning

Sr. Director, Corporate Communications

949-926-5555

blanning@broadcom.com

Broadcom Technical Contact

Jeff Abramowitz

Sr. Director, Marketing

408-543-3311

jeffa@broadcom.com

Broadcom Investor Relations Contact

T. Peter Andrew

Sr. Director, Investor Relations

949-926-5663

andrewtp@broadcom.com

Broadcom Corporation

CONTACT: Trade Press, Henry Rael, Sr. Communications Specialist,+1-949-926-5734, hrael@broadcom.com, or Business Press, Bill Blanning, Sr.Director, Corporate Communications, +1-949-926-5555, blanning@broadcom.com, orTechnical, Jeff Abramowitz, Sr. Director, Marketing, +1-408-543-3311,jeffa@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Sr. Director,Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, all of BroadcomCorporation

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

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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