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Broadcom First to Demonstrate Four-Slot EDGE Performance at
More Than 200 Kbps for Mobile Multimedia Applications
IRVINE, Calif., June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), the leading provider of silicon solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced it is sampling a complete cellular handset platform that enables leading handset manufacturers to develop next-generation mobile multimedia solutions based on the EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) standard. Broadcom's field-proven EDGE cellular platform is centered on the Broadcom® BCM2132 single-chip EDGE/GPRS/GSM multimedia baseband processor, enabling high-speed, multi-slot Class 12 data rates of more than 236 Kbps over GSM-based networks.
EDGE is a major improvement in Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology that allows consumers to use cellular handsets, PC cards, PDAs and other wireless devices to connect to the Internet at data rates up to four times faster than existing GSM and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) wireless devices. EDGE is easily implemented upon the existing network infrastructure with more than 23 mobile-service operators worldwide already having committed to support the technology. In the United States, operators such as AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless are currently installing EDGE infrastructure over their entire existing network footprints. According to analyst firm Instat/MDR, 64 percent of cellular handsets worldwide will operate on the GSM standard in 2003.
"The availability of our four-slot multimedia EDGE platform further extends Broadcom's portfolio in mobile communications, providing a complete solution for the expanding EDGE market," said Dr. Tung Chang, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Mobile Communications Business Unit. "Our EDGE technology enables our partners to address the growing demand for high-speed mobile connectivity with low incremental cost over today's GPRS terminals."
Broadcom has collaborated with a number of operators, infrastructure vendors and interoperability testing labs to enable the rapid testing and resolution of EDGE test cases and recently demonstrated better than 200 Kbps streaming and Internet browsing over an EDGE network. In addition, products using Broadcom's EDGE technology recently passed FCC radio testing and Broadcom anticipates that such devices will be shipping in volume production in the third quarter of 2003, underscoring the maturity of the technology. In the same timeframe, Broadcom is planning to release its EDGE platform that meets the latest Release 99 protocol stack specifications, enabling operators to offer enhanced network and terminal features.
Broadcom's complete EDGE platform for handset and PC cards solves the complex Radio Frequency (RF) design challenges critical for manufacturing EDGE cellular technology. In addition, Broadcom has already completed exhaustive four-slot receive EDGE testing using all EDGE channel-coding schemes, including incremental redundancy, designed to improve data throughput in areas with low signal strength. Broadcom's BCM2132 single-chip, mixed-signal baseband and RF design EDGE platform solution, demonstrate Broadcom's leadership and ability to provide customers with a world-class solution with early time-to-market advantages.
"Operator interest worldwide in EDGE has significantly increased this year as carriers see continued delays in UMTS. Many are now considering EDGE network upgrades as a high-speed enhancement that utilizes existing spectrum with a minimal investment," said Allen Nogee, Senior Analyst for Instat/MDR. "The bandwidth enabled by four-slot solutions will make EDGE increasingly attractive, while Broadcom's ability to bring EDGE technology to market quickly with turn-key reference designs and testing support will simplify the process for handset manufacturers deploying next generation EDGE handsets with high data rate capabilities."
Broadcom's EDGE Platform Advantage
Broadcom's single-chip BCM2132 EDGE solution uses an ARM926EJ™ processor, along with a TeakLite® DSP and is targeted at multimedia handset and PC card/data applications. The platform supports a broad array of multimedia messaging features including camera, graphics engine, multiple color displays, USB On-The-Go (OTG), IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth™ technologies. Broadcom's platform includes complete messaging client software that enables video clips or pictures to be sent via EDGE, as well as a broad range of messaging support.
Broadcom's EDGE software/hardware partitioning is unique in that the key radio modem and protocol functions are handled by dedicated hardware and thus do not require the use of a high-speed DSP core to deliver four-slot EDGE functionality. This partitioning, coupled with a novel incremental redundancy implementation that requires very low DSP and ARM processor instructions, results in low power consumption and leaves more processing power available to run multimedia applications.
Broadcom's EDGE multimedia platform consists of a complete radio reference design including protocol stack, flexible software, application programming interface, application enablers and all layer 1/DSP software. A complete multimedia framework is also available for supporting full feature terminals and man-machine interface (MMI) development.
Broadcom complements its industry leading technology solutions with a complete end-to-end solution, including target PCB form factor design, carrier interoperability testing (IOT) and a production support program that enables cellular handset and PC data card manufacturers to achieve significant time- to-market advantages.
Broadcom's Mobile Communication Products
In addition to the BCM2132 EDGE/GPRS/GSM multimedia processor, Broadcom's mobile communications, single-chip, all-CMOS baseband processors include the ML2011 GSM processor and the BCM2121 GPRS/GSM processor. Broadcom's proven expertise in mixed-signal and CMOS RF also enables the delivery of complete wireless, local and personal area network (WAN/LAN/PAN) solutions in mobile data communications with compelling, size, cost and performance benefits. Broadcom offers a wide range of innovative wireless products including solutions for EDGE, GSM, GPRS, IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth, delivering on the vision of anytime anywhere connectivity.
Availability
Broadcom's complete EDGE platform for handsets and PC cards is sampling now, with production quantities expected in third quarter of 2003.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is the leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, Broadcom designs, develops and supplies complete system-on-a- chip solutions and related hardware and software applications for every major broadband communications market. Our diverse product portfolio includes solutions for digital cable and satellite set-top boxes; cable and 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 processors; and SystemI/O™ server solutions. These technologies and products support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 1- 949-450-8700 or at 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. 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," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and are based upon the information available to us at this time. Such information is subject to change, and we will not necessarily inform you of such changes. These statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with its EDGE cellular platform, BCM2132, ML2001, BCM2121 and other mobile communications products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the continuing significant economic slowdown and 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 timing and successful completion of technology and product development through volume production; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for mobile communications products; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; 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 retain and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the numbers, with the 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 timely manner; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non- qualification or non-certification; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and the ability of our customers to manage their inventories; the loss of a key customer; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the effects of new and emerging technologies; changes in our product or customer mix; 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. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything® and SystemI/O ™ are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. ARM926EJ™ is a trademark of ARM Limited. TeakLite® is a trademark of ParthusCeva, Inc. Bluetooth™ is a trademark of the Bluetooth SIG. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
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
Aki Shohara
Sr. Director, Marketing
Mobile Communications
408-922-5403
ashohara@broadcom.com
Broadcom Financial Analyst Contact
T. Peter Andrew Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
pandrew@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
-0- 06/18/2003
/CONTACT: Broadcom Trade Press, Henry Rael, Sr. Communications
Specialist, +1-949-926-5734, hrael@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Business Press,
Bill Blanning, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications, +1-949-926-5555,
blanning@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Technical, Aki Shohara, Sr. Director,
Marketing Mobile Communications, +1-408-922-5403, ashohara@broadcom.com, or
Broadcom Financial Analyst, T. Peter Andrew, Sr. Director, Investor Relations,
+1-949-926-5663, pandrew@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation/
/Web site: http://www.broadcom.com/
(BRCM)
CO: Broadcom Corporation
ST: California
IN: CPR STW HRD TLS
SU:
GC-JA
-- LAW045 --
9648 06/18/2003 08:02 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
