Leading Wi-Fi(R) Chipmaker Drives Enterprise WLAN Adoption with an End-to-End Solution for Businesses Deploying 802.11n Networks

IRVINE, Calif., April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today expanded its network switching portfolio with an end-to-end solution for businesses deploying 802.11n Wi-Fi(R) networks. The new solution combines Broadcom's industry leading Intensi-fi(R) silicon with its proven FASTPATH(R) networking software, which extends the business-critical features from the company's popular StrataXGS(R) enterprise switches. As a result, enterprise Wi-Fi access points can deliver superior performance and scalability across a customer's entire network. This integrated platform provides significant cost and time-to-market advantages for manufacturers compared to other silicon solutions that do not include the software features that IT managers require.

'Broadcom is building on the great success we have achieved with consumer 802.11n solutions to serve the untapped enterprise wireless market,' said Michael Hurlston, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Wireless LAN line of business. 'By marrying the industry's leading WLAN solutions with proven switch hardware and software, Broadcom is well-positioned to pursue the $2.3 billion enterprise wireless market with an end-to-end solution.'(i)

Announced today are the Broadcom(R) BCM4342 single-chip 802.11n solution and BCM954342EAP enterprise access point reference design. The new solutions leverage FASTPATH Unified Access Point software to deliver the features that IT managers require across their wireless networks including robust security, quality of service (QoS), dynamic channel planning, and support for multiple basic service set identifiers (BSSIDs). The flexible design can be used for standalone access points, as well as for 'thin' access points that are managed by a wireless switch or controller running Broadcom's FASTPATH Unified Wireless Switching software. This end-to-end platform provides centralized RF management, seamless mobility and wireless threat detection and prevention across the entire network. FASTPATH UAP eliminates the need for third-party software or in-house development, which can shave months off a manufacturer's development time.

'Mobility in the corporate work environment is a necessity and today's mobile workforce has come to expect wireless connectivity anywhere and at any time,' said Martin Lund, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Network Switching line of business. 'Enterprise customers demand more reliable, secure and manageable networks than what's needed in the consumer market. Given Broadcom's switching and WLAN expertise, combined with our networking software, our platform can meet these demands and unleash the power of 802.11n in business networks.'

Solving PoE Issues to Drive Enterprise Adoption of 802.11n

Broadcom's BCM4342 Wi-Fi solution is also the first to successfully address power consumption issues that have slowed business adoption of 802.11n to date. Although dual-band 802.11n access points offer greater bandwidth and capacity than previous products, simultaneous operation of both radios has traditionally exceeded the power limits of the Power over Ethernet (PoE) equipment used in nearly all large networks. This forced IT managers to use two PoE ports for each access point, or upgrade their entire network to support the new PoE+ standard (IEEE 802.3at).

Using 65nm CMOS process technology, Broadcom's single-chip BCM4342 Wi-Fi solution consumes half the power of competing 802.11n chipsets, allowing access points to operate simultaneously on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands while being powered by a company's existing PoE infrastructure. This can reduce the cost of deploying or upgrading enterprise networks to support advanced wireless applications such as high definition (HD) video surveillance, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video conferencing.

In addition to reducing implementation costs, access points based on the BCM4342 will bring significant performance benefits to corporate Wi-Fi users. Broadcom's unique architecture delivers data rates of 300 Megabits per second (Mbps) and maintains wireless connections over a larger coverage area than other 802.11n solutions. Intensi-fi solutions also offer the greatest wireless capacity -- with three non-overlapping channels in the 2.4 GHz band and 24 non-overlapping channels in the 5 GHz band. This is especially important in enterprise networks, where IT managers rely on dual-band infrastructure to serve a large number of Wi-Fi users and accommodate latency-sensitive applications.

Technical Information

The BCM4342 is a complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution that accelerates time-to-market and reduces development costs for a variety of 802.11n access points. It combines an 802.11 medium access controller (MAC), a baseband processor, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios and other WLAN components onto a single silicon die. This high level of integration reduces the number of components required for a WLAN subsystem by two-thirds, which significantly reduces the footprint and lowers a manufacturer's bill of materials (BOM) cost. Broadcom is the only wireless LAN chipmaker delivering 65nm products, which provides distinct power, size and cost advantages over 90nm and 130nm solutions.

Availability and Pricing

The BCM4342 Wi-Fi solution and BCM954342EAP enterprise access point reference design are now sampling to early access customers, with production quantities expected to ship in the second quarter of 2008. Pricing is available upon request.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom(R) products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide 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(R).

Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2007 revenue of $3.78 billion, and holds over 2,600 U.S. and 1,200 foreign patents, more than 7,450 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.

Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 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 BCM4342 Wi-Fi 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 wireless LAN 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; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; 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; 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; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; 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 the quality of our products and any remediation costs; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; 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 risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations; 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; 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 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, 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(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), the Connecting everything logo, FASTPATH(R), StrataXGS(R) and Intensi-fi(R) are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Wi-Fi(R) is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

    (i)  Dell'Oro Group Wireless LAN 5-year Forecast Report (January 2008)

     Broadcom Trade Press Contact
     Jeremy Hyatt
     Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
     949-926-5971
     jhyatt@broadcom.com

     Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
     T. Peter Andrew
     Vice President, Corporate Communications
     949-926-5663
     andrewtp@broadcom.com

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Mobile & Wireless

Source: PR Newswire (April 22, 2008 - 9:00 PM EDT)

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