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IRVINE, Calif., Feb 28, 2006 -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its newest ROBOSwitch™ Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch silicon has been selected by NETGEAR, a worldwide provider of technologically advanced, branded networking products. NETGEAR selected the Broadcom® ROBOSwitch solutions for its next generation of GbE switches targeted for home, small office/home office (SOHO) and small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) networks. The highly integrated ROBOSwitch chips, including the recently announced BCM5397 and BCM5398, enable NETGEAR and its end user customers to reduce system costs and network downtime for unmanaged networks, while providing the most complete Layer 2 feature set that is optimized for lightly managed and smart managed SMB networks.
In the past, Gigabit Ethernet switches were considered cost prohibitive for all but enterprise applications. However, given the widespread penetration of GbE-enabled laptops, desktops and network interface cards (NICs), the cost of implementing a complete GbE network has become more affordable for SMBs and for bandwidth-intensive applications at home such as MP3s, video-streaming, home entertainment and online gaming. Having led the industry migration to Fast Ethernet (FE), Broadcom is now accelerating the adoption of higher performance Gigabit Ethernet in cost-conscious home and small business networks.
"NETGEAR chose Broadcom's BCM5397 and BCM5398 because these two GbE switches offer the lowest system cost, industry leading power consumption, and a great feature set for both unmanaged and smart managed designs," said Kevin Allen, Director of Product Marketing at NETGEAR. "Broadcom's strong SMB switch roadmap and its ability to deliver SMB switch products with the right mix of cost, power and innovative features has been and will continue to be a big part of our success in the SMB market, resulting in our 7th consecutive quarter as the global leader in unmanaged Gigabit switching, as measured by Dell'Oro in their most recent report."
"NETGEAR's selection of Broadcom's latest Gigabit Ethernet switch solutions underscores our strong leadership in Ethernet switching, technology innovation and cost-optimized switch silicon," said Martin Lund, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Network Switching Business Unit. "Broadcom's highly integrated and low power Gigabit Ethernet switch silicon enables our customers to deliver a wide range of SMB switching and CPE products, and enables us to pass cost savings to customers and their end users. Working with NETGEAR, a worldwide leader in unmanaged and smart managed Gigabit Ethernet switches, allows us to bring our innovative switch solutions to the broadest customer base and helps us expand our market leading position in Ethernet switch technology."
The ROBOSwitch BCM5397 and BCM5398 are examples of feature rich 5-port and 8-port GbE switch chips that integrate Broadcom's industry-leading Gigabit PHYs for all ports, resulting in a lower cost, smaller footprint design that is easy to implement while reducing power consumption. The ROBOSwitch BCM5397 and BCM5398 are the only SMB switch chips in the industry that incorporate intelligent features such as LoopDTech™ and CableChecker™ technologies that provide simplified network management and self-diagnostic troubleshooting for unmanaged networks.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Our products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. Broadcom provides the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom, one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies with annual revenue of more than $2.5 billion, is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has 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 BCM5397 and BCM5398 Gigabit 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.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo, ROBOSwitch™, LoopDTech™ and CableChecker™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Mike He
Public Relations Manager
408-922-8083
mhe@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Vice President, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Eric Yeh
Senior Product Line Manager
408-922-8057
ericyeh@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Enterprise Networking
Trade Press, Mike He, Public Relations Manager, +1-408-922-8083, mhe@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, or Technical, Eric Yeh, Senior Product Line Manager, +1-408-922-8057, ericyeh@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation
