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LAS VEGAS, Interop 2006, May 2, 2006 -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced a new series of switch fabric chips for its industry-leading line of StrataXGS® III Ethernet switching products. The new chips are the industry's first to deliver up to 384 Gigabits-per- second (Gbps) of non-blocking switching capacity on a single chip. Furthermore, in multi-chip configurations, the fabric can scale to more than 3 terabits per second, which is more than double the capacity available from previous generation fabrics. The new switch fabric chips are designed for use in 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) stackable and chassis-based enterprise networking systems, and improve the performance in stackable systems by enabling a level of bandwidth that is typically only found in chassis-based equipment.
Enterprise networking equipment manufacturers are striving to develop 1GbE and 10GbE systems with increased port counts and functionality to handle the growth of business applications and converged network traffic (i.e. voice, video, data and storage) that is found in today's business environments. The network must also provide guaranteed delivery of high-priority, time-sensitive traffic such as voice and video. To support these new system demands, the switch fabric that interconnects the stackable and chassis-based systems must have increased capacity and support a high level of quality of service (QoS). In chassis-based systems, the additional capacity is typically achieved by upgrading the central system switch fabric card, and in stackable configurations, additional stacking links must be added.
Announced today is Broadcom's new StrataXGS III BCM56700 Series, which features up to 16 ports of HiGig™ stacking, with each port capable of running at 12+ Gbps. The new StrataXGS III 700 Series is unparalleled in its stacking capability, and in a typical configuration, offers up to 144 Gbps full duplex bandwidth, or 288 Gbps of stacking capability. As a result, the new switch fabric chips break the performance barrier of stackable systems, enabling them to reach a higher level of bandwidth that is typically associated with chassis-based systems.
The BCM56700 Series features Service Aware Flow Control™ (SAFC) technology, which allows guaranteed delivery of high priority, time-sensitive traffic in a converged Ethernet network, even during periods of heavy network congestion. The BCM56700 also features dynamic buffer management, which intelligently manages bursts in network traffic, resulting in better network performance.
"Broadcom's new switch fabric addresses the need for increased performance of next-generation enterprise systems, while improving functionality, security and quality of service," said Eric Hayes, Director of Marketing for Broadcom's Enterprise Switching Line of Business. "As a new addition to the StrataXGS family, the BCM56700 enables Broadcom to continue to offer the industry's most comprehensive Ethernet switching portfolio."
"Broadcom reinforces its leadership in Ethernet semiconductor technology by delivering new products with advanced features and higher performance to the market," said Michael See, CTO for Alcatel's network infrastructure development. "The innovative networking software from Alcatel combined with state-of-the-art switching silicon from Broadcom adds up to world-class enterprise switching platforms for converged voice, video, and data networks."
The StrataXGS III BCM56700 Series provides a variety of features required for the enterprise networking market including:
- 384 Gbps wire-speed performance on a single chip
- 16 integrated high-speed XAUI+ interfaces, which reduce total cost and board space
- 10 priority queues per port for control and user data to enable a high level of QoS
- Built-in hardware load balancing for trunks to provide even traffic distribution
- Hardware link failover, which enables switch over to a backup link in less than 10 microseconds when an active link fails
Availability
The StrataXGS III BCM56700 Series is sampling today and features a mature software API, which is currently supported by multiple third-party software vendors. Volume production of the new BCM56700 Series is anticipated in July 2006. Product pricing is available upon request.
StrataXGS III 700 Series reference designs are also available to help speed time-to-market and include software, schematics, layout files and related documentation.
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 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 StrataXGS 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, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, 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 switching 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; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; 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; 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; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; 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; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test 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 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, StrataXGS®, HiGig™, and Service Aware Flow Control™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, the EU and/or certain other countries. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact Gennis Lafayette Public Relations Manager 408-543-3413 gennisl@broadcom.com Broadcom Investor Relations Contact T. Peter Andrew Vice President, Investor Relations 949-926-5663 andrewtp@broadcom.com Broadcom Technical Contact John Mui Product Line Manager 408-922-5638 jmui@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Enterprise Networking
Broadcom Trade Press, Gennis Lafayette, Public Relations Manager, +1-408-543-3413, gennisl@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, or Broadcom Technical, John Mui, Product Line Manager, +1-408-922-5638, jmui@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation
