Broadcom Makes Ethernet More ’Entertaining’

--New BroadSync™ HD Technology for Consumer and Professional Audio/Video Applications Leverages Broadcom’s Extensive Ethernet IC Experience and Leadership

IRVINE, Calif., Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, announced BroadSync™ HD technology to enable extraordinary streaming of high definition (HD) audio/video (A/V) traffic over Ethernet to networked electronic devices. This new technology expands the market for Broadcom’s existing Ethernet portfolio beyond traditional networking applications by promoting Ethernet as a cost effective, easy-to-install technology, with professional levels of Quality of Service (QoS), for the consumer and professional A/V electronics market. BroadSync HD technology is Broadcom’s custom implementation of the IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB) draft standard, which provides guaranteed QoS, frame synchronization and timing that is necessary to stream professional-quality audio and video traffic over Ethernet.

For more information about the IEEE 802.1 AVB Task Force, please visit: http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/avbridges.html

The growth of digital media content has created a need to access and distribute this content reliably and cost effectively. As a result, many dedicated interfaces (such as analog audio and video, component video and HDMI) are being replaced with network-based interfaces and technologies such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi®, MoCA® and Bluetooth®. This transition creates an opportunity for equipment manufacturers to reduce the wide array of interfaces in use today to a few proven easy-to-use technologies that are relatively inexpensive. In support of this trend, the IEEE 802.1 AVB draft standard will ultimately enable a single Ethernet cable to replace the variety of cables that are now used to connect audio and video equipment. Furthermore, Ethernet connectivity will now enable these devices to be connected together via a network, and to the Internet, allowing access to online content.

“The connectivity technologies used today in consumer and professional audio/video electronics can be difficult to use with a plethora of seemingly identical connectors and obscure labels,” said Michael Johas Teener, Technical Director, Broadcom’s Enterprise Networking Group. “These technologies also present technical issues such as limited performance, fixed functionality and the inability to connect with computers or the Internet. Broadcom’s BroadSync HD technology solves these problems by combining guaranteed bandwidth, quality of service, and low latency with the flexibility and performance of Ethernet.”

Broadcom is leading the effort to promote the AVB draft standard, which uses standard Ethernet connectivity (i.e. Category 5 cabling and RJ45 connectors), as the common underlying technology for high quality network-based streaming that will eventually replace most other types of connectivity presently used in A/V equipment. Since Ethernet is cost effective and widely used in networking today, modifying it is much easier and less expensive than adding networking to existing dedicated interfaces.

BroadSync™ HD Technology

BroadSync HD technology is Broadcom’s custom implementation of the AVB draft standard, and it expands the market for the company’s current Ethernet-based products. This technology has the potential to lower the cost of equipment that currently uses other analog and digital point-to-point connectivity technologies because it originates from a standards-based network protocol. With the addition of BroadSync HD technology, Broadcom Ethernet products can support the most demanding connection requirements of consumer and professional A/V equipment. Broadcom is the first in the industry to have an end-to-end silicon portfolio that supports the IEEE 802.1 AVB draft specification including Ethernet switches, end-point devices, physical layer devices (PHYs) and software.

Today, Broadcom is working with strategic partners, such as Harman International, to bring this technology to market.

“The IEEE 802.1 AV Bridging standard promises to revolutionize connectivity for audio and video components, and we see Broadcom as a strategic partner in the effort to bring this technology to market,” said Rick Kreifeldt, Vice President, Harman International Corporate Technology Group. “Broadcom’s leadership in Ethernet technology, coupled with our expertise in consumer, professional, and automotive audio/video, will result in exciting new products in all of our markets.”

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom 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®.

Broadcom is one of the world’s largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2008 revenue of $4.66 billion, and holds over 3,100 U.S. and over 1,400 foreign patents, more than 7,600 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 www.broadcom.com.

Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:

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. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the demand for Ethernet audio/video bridging products and our position in that market. 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 system-on-a-chip solutions that support audio/video bridging technology include, but are not limited to

-- The rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt
Broadcom’s technologies and products in the markets;
-- The gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order;
-- 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 timely and accurately predict market requirements and
evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new
markets;
-- 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.


Additional factors that may cause Broadcom’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the list that can be found at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q12009.php.

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, except as required by law.

Broadcom, the pulse logo, Connecting everything, the Connecting everything logo and BroadSync™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Bluetooth is a trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc. MoCA is a trademark of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.