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LAS VEGAS, May 2, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Networld + Interop 2005 -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors, today announced the second StrataXGS III™ product family called the 600 Series. This latest extension to the StrataXGS III architecture broadens Broadcom's leadership in Ethernet from the enterprise to the carrier market, setting the foundation for carriers to launch a new class of profitable services based on cost-effective, pervasively used, Ethernet communications technology.
Subscribers increasingly seek secure, higher bandwidth connectivity and richer entertainment as part of their network services. To remain competitive, service providers need to offer new revenue generating services such as video-on-demand and multi-channel high definition IPTV, as well as toll quality voice over IP and high-speed connectivity. The new carrier-class Ethernet capabilities delivered by the StrataXGS III 600 Series are optimized to meet the scalability, flexibility and reliability requirements of these new services, with a cost model that will accelerate the deployment of carrier-class Ethernet in service provider networks.
Announced today is the Broadcom® StrataXGS III 600 Series of switches and the first Ethernet services router silicon solutions designed specifically for carrier applications. The 600 Series includes 3 new devices: the BCM56600, BCM56601 and BCM56602. Each device provides both Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) interfaces and integrates 12 Gigabit per second (Gbps) HiGig™ SerDes (serializer/deserializer) technology for resilient scaling of StrataXGS® devices across backplanes in modular systems. This level of scaling not only preserves the switch investment, but also enables carriers to offer high throughput flows across multiple switch fabrics with automatic protection switching.
"We continue to accelerate the evolution of the StrataXGS architecture," said Martin Lund, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Enterprise Switch Line of Business. "For the first time, the StrataXGS III 600 Series delivers a scalable carrier-grade Ethernet solution that enables carriers to deploy new, real-time services to hundreds of thousands of subscribers simultaneously per chip."
Requirements for Revenue Generating Services
The StrataXGS III 600 Series offers a wide variety of intelligent protocols that are required for the deployment of next-generation IP converged networks. This includes:
* IPv6 routing
* Multi protocol label switching (MPLS)
* Service provider bridging
* Stacked Layer 2 services
* Protocol tunneling
* Extensive Layer 2 and Layer 3 IPv6 tunneling
* Efficient multicast
* Point-to-multi point virtual private LAN services (VPLS)
Also integrated in the 600 Series are comprehensive traffic management capabilities that enable the deployment of carrier-class service level agreements (SLA) to hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Given the exponential growth of subscribers in a number of service provider markets, the 600 Series features such future-proofing capabilities as IPv6 routing with Layer 3 virtual private networks (VPNs) that are used to provision millions of simultaneous routing sessions. Unlike competitive solutions, the 600 Series provides scalable, wire-speed packet buffering across all packet sizes -- a feature that is necessary to prevent data loss which can impact the user experience. IPTV, a next-generation billable service that carriers are planning to deploy with the 600 Series, requires this level of deep packet buffering.
Typically, one of the hardest requirements to support in carrier-class environments is "availability of service." The StrataXGS III 600 Series addresses availability of service concerns by supporting automatic network healing through fast failover and hardware redundancy mechanisms.
Summary
The StrataXGS III 600 Series of Ethernet switch solutions meets new challenges for both the carrier and enterprise markets by providing the architectural efficiency, design flexibility and carrier class features required to empower the carrier networks of tomorrow, today. By incorporating the necessary scalability, reliability and security, the capital equipment investment is future-proofed at a total cost of ownership that is certain to accelerate Ethernet's adoption as the most pervasive communications technology to provision billable services in carrier networks.
Pricing and Availability
The StrataXGS III 600 Series of Ethernet switches (BCM56600, BCM56601 and BCM56602) is sampling to Broadcom's 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 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 and business, 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 StrataXGS III Ethernet switch 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; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; 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 timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; 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; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; 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.
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Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Scott Harlin
Public Relations Manager
949-926-5226
sharlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Ted Weatherford
Sr. Product Line Manager
408-501-8004
tedw@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
