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LAS VEGAS, Networld + Interop 2004, May 10, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced NetXtreme™ II, the company's next generation Gigabit Ethernet controller, which includes an integrated transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) offload engine, iSCSI host bus adapter functionality, remote direct memory access (RDMA) technology, and remote system management. Broadcom® NetXtreme II Gigabit Ethernet Controllers are the first controllers in the industry to simultaneously perform storage networking, high-performance clustering, accelerated data networking and remote system management pass- through functions at a cost intended to promote broad adoption of the technology.
With the convergence of high-speed networking, storage, clustering, and remote management on a standard Ethernet network, end users can significantly reduce cost by leveraging the existing IT infrastructure. A standard server equipped with current Ethernet controllers cannot efficiently run network, storage and cluster traffic simultaneously over Ethernet, as it takes a significant portion of the CPU's processing power to operate the network at the full line rate. NetXtreme II Controllers bring the necessary performance to run these network functions over a single, converged fabric on today's server platforms.
With the introduction of NetXtreme II controllers, Broadcom is presenting the industry with a new class of Ethernet controller called a "converged NIC" (or C-NIC), which combines the functions of four separate networks into one multi-function network incorporating TCP offload, iSCSI, RDMA and in-band management pass-through technology.
A TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) shifts the Ethernet protocol processing overhead from the host CPU to the network controller, freeing up the CPU and memory resources, thus allowing increased network throughput. The iSCSI functionality enables low-cost networked storage capabilities over an existing Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure (i.e. network cabling, switches, and routers). RDMA technology enables high performance server clustering and eliminates the burden of excessive memory copies when communicating between servers. The embedded in-band management pass-through technology allows for remote control of a server over a single network connection.
"Broadcom's announcement today represents not only the next generation of Ethernet networking technology, but a fundamental change to that technology as well," said Thomas Lagatta, Group Vice President of Broadcom's Enterprise Computing Group. "The NetXtreme II controller is the first device that converges LAN, storage, clustering and remote server management onto a single Ethernet fabric. Server vendors will now have the ability to vastly simplify their systems, lower the total cost of ownership, and significantly improve overall system performance. And, all of this can be done via existing Ethernet network infrastructure."
"Multifunction networking lets customers use their existing Ethernet infrastructure in new ways and allows them to manage change in their adaptive enterprise," said Paul Perez, Vice-President, Storage, Networking & Infrastructure, Industry Standard Servers, HP. "HP is committed to working with industry leaders like Broadcom to create innovative, customer-focused technologies that optimize the performance and utilization of IT investments."
BCM5706: The First Device in the NetXtreme II Family
The BCM5706 is the first device in the NetXtreme II family, which builds upon Broadcom's previous generations of NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet controllers. It is the industry's first and only device that combines a TCP/IP offload engine, iSCSI and RDMA on a single chip. The implementation is optimized for high density rack and blade server LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) and network interface card (NIC) applications, and allows customers to use existing board layouts to upgrade their systems from earlier generations of Broadcom controllers, such as the widely deployed BCM5703.
Using the industry-standard NTTTCP benchmark, preliminary testing demonstrates that Broadcom's NetXtreme II controller, running Microsoft® TCP Chimney software, improves CPU utilization on a current server by as much as five times over an existing Gigabit Ethernet controller. Broadcom's implementation of the TCP Chimney is the industry's first true, single-chip Ethernet controller to provide TCP/IP offload without external memory.
IT Infrastructure to Benefit from C-NICs
Converged NICs let customers simplify their IT infrastructure and give them the flexibility to run high-performance data, storage, and clustering over existing, familiar TCP/IP and Ethernet infrastructures. Broader Ethernet use can decrease the total cost of ownership when fewer specialized clustering and storage networks are needed to accommodate aggregate user demand for applications processing and network throughput.
C-NICs have significant performance benefits throughout the enterprise and will improve performance on both basic and advanced server applications such as:
* IT Infrastructure -- File and print, networking, proxy/caching,
security, and systems management;
* Web Infrastructure -- Web serving, streaming media;
* Business or database processing -- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), On Line Transaction Processing
(OLTP) and batch processing;
* Decision Support -- Data warehousing/mart, data analysis/mining; and
* Technical -- High-performance computing, computer-aided design.
Availability and Pricing
The BCM5706 is priced at $35 each in high-volume quantities. This price is comparable to existing Gigabit Ethernet controllers and is intended to promote broad adoption in servers. The BCM5706 is pin- and layout-compatible with earlier generations of the NetXtreme product line and is packaged in a 400-pin PBGA package (21 x 21 mm). The product is currently sampling and is expected to ramp to volume production in the fourth quarter of 2004.
What Industry Analysts are Saying about Broadcom's NetXtreme II
John Webster, Senior Analyst, Data Mobility Group
"Storage administrators are asking for better alignment of storage networks with applications and business policies. Combining both communications and management processing on a single controller allows OEM vendors to offer products that can be aligned with the specific requirements of customer application environments at very affordable price points."
Tony Asaro, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Storage Group
"The Broadcom C-NIC is an important step to the proliferation of IP and Ethernet as a major storage networking technology. Customers are looking for a universal infrastructure that is multi-functional and demands the convergence of all kinds of traffic leveraging to what is already in place today. It is not just about communications data, iSCSI packets, clustering servers, or the management of networked devices. It is about all of those things sharing the same infrastructure. That is what Broadcom brings to the table with C-NIC."
Joseph Byrne, Principal Analyst, Gartner
"Input/output is a bottleneck in server design. The I/O bottleneck needs to be addressed so that increased microprocessor performance will result in increased server performance. Simply increasing the number, or size, of the pipes is insufficient. Simply increasing I/O bandwidth will increase the burdens of protocol processing and memory transfers on the CPU and memory subsystem. What is needed, in addition to increased bandwidth, is an I/O design that alleviates these burdens."
Sean Lavey, Semiconductor Program Manager, IDC
"The ability to offload certain networking and IP storage processing tasks from a server's host CPU and onto an optimized chip will become an important development to follow in the future. If the hardware acceleration promise holds true, then faster Gigabit Ethernet networks deployed in the datacenter would enable support for a converged environment where both IP-based LAN and SAN traffic coexist."
Sam Lucero, Industry Analyst, InStat/MDR
"Many companies today are searching for converged networking solutions. Broadcom's C-NIC clearly addresses this need in a manner that will allow for widespread adoption of the technology."
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™ 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, 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," 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 its NetXtreme and NetXtreme II Gigabit Ethernet controller 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 enterprise and consumer networking applications; 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 scale our operations in response to increases in demand for our products and services; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; 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; 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 loss of a key customer; 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 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; 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®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, NetXtreme™, and SystemI/O™ are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. Microsoft® is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Scott Harlin
Sr. Communications Specialist
949-926-5226
sharlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Business Press Contact
Bill Blanning
Sr. Director, Corporate Communications
949-926-5555
blanning@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Allen Light
Product Line Manager
949-926-5744
alight@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
Broadcom Trade Press, Scott Harlin, Sr. Communications Specialist, +1-949-926-5226, sharlin@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Business Press, Bill Blanning, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications, +1-949-926-5555, blanning@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Technical, Allen Light, Product Line Manager, +1-949-926-5744, alight@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Sr. Director, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation
http://www.broadcom.com
