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LAS VEGAS, 2005 International CES, Jan 07, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced an advanced high definition television (HDTV) decoder reference design platform featuring H.264 video compression technology (also known as MPEG-4 Part 10/Advanced Video Coding (AVC)). This advanced reference design enables HDTV manufacturers to cost-effectively incorporate H.264 video compression technology into their next-generation high definition TV designs to significantly reduce the bandwidth required to deliver HD and digital video content over service operator networks. The new Broadcom® HDTV decoder reference design is targeted for use in cable, satellite, Internet Protocol (IP) set-top box and media center applications.
The existing bandwidth of the infrastructures used by cable, satellite and telecommunications operators limits the supply of effective bandwidth to subscribers, making currently available technologies less than adequate for data, audio and video transmissions. The advanced H.264-based compression technology frees up much needed bandwidth for cable operators to support additional services, such as advanced telephony, high-speed Internet access and video on demand (VOD) services. Additionally, this technology enables satellite operators to cost-effectively offer more channels over a given spectrum, and it enables telecommunications operators to offer high-quality digital broadcast services over their current networks.
The new Broadcom BCM97395 HDTV decoder reference design provides HDTV manufacturers with a complete solution for receiving, decoding and displaying digital and analog video content, with the ability to simultaneously decode and display two independent channels of HD AVC video. The reference design can be customized to support cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcast applications through the use of tuner modules specific to these applications. An integrated Ethernet controller within the BCM97395 HDTV decoder board enables the reference design to support high-quality digital video streaming over IP telephony and in-home networks. The BCM97395 also incorporates personal video recording capabilities, which enables users to watch and record HD programs.
"With HDTV and digital programming becoming mainstream in the broadcasting industry, it has become essential for HDTV manufacturers to deliver solutions that reduce the cost of supporting advanced cable, broadcast and satellite services," said Brian Sprague, Broadcom's Senior Director of Marketing for Set-Top Boxes. "Our BCM97395 reference design enables HDTV manufacturers to provide fast time-to-market with next-generation set-top boxes incorporating H.264 compression, which significantly reduces the cost of supporting HDTV technology."
"The H.264 standard is an enabling technology that will enable us to offer expanded HDTV services to our subscribers," said Alexander Sacher, Head of Technology, Premiere. "We are extremely pleased that Broadcom has made available this complete reference design for our vendors to develop next-generation set-top boxes with this advanced video compression technology."
Product Information
The BCM97395 HDTV decoder reference design has been developed using production-ready chips including the BCM7038 dual-channel HDTV and personal video recorder (PVR) chip and the BCM7411 MPEG-4/AVC video decoder/audio processor chip. The BCM7038 is a highly integrated dual HD video/audio/graphics and PVR chip that delivers exceptionally high-quality HD programming. The dual audio and video channels and PVR features offer a number of advanced capabilities such as support for the delivery of HD broadcasting to multiple televisions in the home, separate HD programs with picture-in-picture (PIP), and HD program watch and record PVR capabilities. The recently announced BCM7411 supports the H.264 video compression standard, which represents the current leading-edge compression technology in the industry. The chip is designed to improve video compression performance by a factor of two to three times when compared to existing MPEG-2 solutions.
Broadcom is demonstrating the BCM97395 reference design at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show, January 6 to 9, 2005, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Meeting Room 35768.
Product Availability
The BCM97395 HDTV decoder reference design platform is available today. Both the BCM7038 dual-channel HDTV/personal video recorder (PVR) chip and the BCM7411 MPEG/AVC video decoder/audio processor chip are also sampling today.
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," "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 the BCM97395, BCM7038 and BCM7411 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 cable, satellite, HDTV, IP, and DSL silicon 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®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo, and SystemI/O™ are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Laura Brandlin
Director, Marketing Communications
949-926-5108
lbrandlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Business Press Contact
Bill Blanning
Vice President, Public Relations
949-926-5555
blanning@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Nick Dunn
Product Line Manager
408-922-7391
ndunn@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
Trade Press, Laura Brandlin, Director, Marketing Communications, +1-949-926-5108, lbrandlin@broadcom.com, or Business Press, Bill Blanning, Vice President, Public Relations, +1-949-926-5555, blanning@broadcom.com, or Technical, Nick Dunn, Product Line Manager, +1-408-922-7391, ndunn@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Sr. Director, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, al of Broadcom Corporation
