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SANTA CLARA, Calif., Server Blade Summit 2005, March 23, 2005 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors, today announced the world's first 2.5 Gigabit controller as part of its NetXtreme II™ family of C-NICs (converged network interface controllers). By delivering 2.5 Gigabit networking throughput with convergence technology designed to boost server performance (i.e. TCP/IP offload engine, iSCSI, and Remote Direct Memory Access), Broadcom's new C-NIC is able to more than double the throughput of standard Gigabit networking while improving overall CPU utilization by up to five times. Designed as a cost-point replacement to existing 1GbE implementations, the new 2.5 Gigabit Broadcom® NetXtreme II C-NIC is optimized for embedded blade server applications and will be demonstrated this week at Server Blade Summit in Booth #706.
Current blade servers rely on up to four highly specialized fabrics to support the four data types that blade servers require to operate efficiently: storage, clustering, management and data networking. To date, the only way to effectively implement blade servers required utilizing specialized network fabrics for each network type. This multi-fabric approach drastically increased overall system cost and compromised the overall value of the blade server implementation.
Through Broadcom's new NetXtreme II C-NIC, OEMs are able for the first time to design-in an ultra high-speed 2.5 Gigabit C-NIC device to perform all of the networking I/O functions over a single, unified Ethernet fabric. This eliminates the need for specialized networks, fundamentally changing the way that blade servers can be built. Not only do NetXtreme II C-NICs converge four separate network fabrics over standard Ethernet, but they also increase the I/O throughput up to two-and-a-half times while improving host CPU utilization by up to five times. NetXtreme II C-NIC technology accomplishes this by providing convergence over Ethernet in the form of TOE-accelerated Ethernet for data networking, hardware-accelerated iSCSI for storage, RDMA for clustering, and a separate high-speed sideband interface for remote management.
"The need to support multiple independent fabrics within blade servers has driven cost and complexity into the architecture, inhibiting growth in this key segment," said Greg Young, Senior Director and General Manager of Broadcom's High-Speed Controller Line of Business. "By introducing the BCM5708S 2.5 Gigabit C-NIC, we are enabling true single fabric convergence that simplifies the blade server architecture while dramatically increasing the performance to cost ratio. We believe that this technology will greatly accelerate blade adoption into the marketplace."
By integrating a 2.5 Gigabit SerDes (serializer/deserializer) transceiver, NetXtreme II C-NIC technology dramatically improves blade server performance by providing more than twice as much throughput, along with a reduction in CPU utilization, while maintaining price parity with today's standard 1GbE implementations. By running 2.5 Gigabit mode inside of the blade server chassis (between the server blade and switch blade), it is possible to unleash system performance without adding cost. Additionally, by coupling four 2.5 Gigabit connections, 10 Gigabits of bandwidth can be embedded inside of the blade server chassis at a fraction of the cost of one 10GbE connection. This newly unleashed server I/O will be aggregated in the 1/10GbE switch blade for connection to the corporate network.
Announced today is the NetXtreme II BCM5708S, representing the second generation of C-NIC silicon solutions from Broadcom. Integrating a SerDes transceiver that supports both 1GbE and a new high-performance 2.5 Gigabit mode, the new BCM5708S features the functionality of TCP/IP offload, iSCSI and RDMA, while adding the PCI Express® peripheral connect interface to the architecture. Since PCI Express is the preferred LOM connection interface on most blade servers being designed today, Broadcom has enabled major server OEMs to incorporate the BCM5708S C-NIC into industry standard blade servers currently under development. In conjunction with Broadcom's first generation PCI-X®-based BCM5706 C-NIC, the company now has a NetXtreme II C-NIC solution for both PCI Express and PCI-X bus architectures.
Additional NetXtreme II C-NIC Information
NetXtreme II C-NICs enable IT professionals to simplify their networking by providing network, storage and clustering capabilities over existing and familiar TCP/IP and Ethernet infrastructures while boosting server performance through a 5x improvement in CPU utilization. By maintaining the aggressive price points necessary for broad server LOM adoption and by deploying these functions over standard Ethernet networks, Broadcom C-NICs enable IT professionals to significantly reduce the costs associated with deploying and maintaining today's complex fabric infrastructure. The BCM5708S NetXtreme II controller is a continuation of Broadcom's successful C-NIC strategy.
PCI Express is a high-speed peripheral interconnect technology designed to accommodate higher speed CPUs. By adding a PCI Express-based C-NIC to its portfolio of NetXtreme II products, Broadcom not only extends its GbE leadership in PCI Express technology, but with a PCI Express x4 interface, supporting up to 10 Gigabit per second (Gbps) throughput, provides leading performance for the latest server technologies.
Pricing and Availability
The BCM5708S C-NIC is sampling to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors. Our products enable the convergence of high- speed data, high definition video, voice and audio at home, in the office and on the go. Broadcom provides manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices with the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on- a-chip and software solutions. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with annual revenue of more than $2 billion. The company is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom 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 BCM5708 NetXtreme II 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 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 scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our products and services; 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; 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; 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 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 NetXtreme II™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. PCI Express® and PCI-X® are trademarks of PCI-SIG Corporation. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Scott Harlin
Public Relations Manager
949-926-5226
sharlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Allen Light
Product Line Manager
949-926-5744
alight@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
Broadcom Trade Press, Scott Harlin, Public Relations Manager, +1-949-926-5226, sharlin@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Sr. Director, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Technical, Allen Light, Product Line Manager, +1-949-926-5744, alight@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation
