Broadcom Launches NetLink™ Family of Gigabit Ethernet Controllers for the SMB and Consumer Markets

New NetLink GbE Controllers are Optimized for the Wide-Scale Adoption of

Gigabit Ethernet Technology Into Small Business and Consumer Markets

IRVINE, Calif., March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced NetLink™, a new family of Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controllers that unlocks the performance potential of networked PCs used by consumers and small businesses. The newly developed Broadcom® NetLink GbE controllers provide reliable and robust performance that is optimized for small-to-medium sized business (SMB) and consumer applications. Incorporated within these new single-chip offerings is an architecture that enables extremely low power consumption, required for today's consumer and SMB markets, and unmatched reliability and stability based on five generations of field-proven Broadcom technology.

"The NetLink family of GbE controllers is a welcome addition to our current product offering and provides an extremely effective solution to outdated Fast Ethernet (FE) technology that has become a bottleneck for today's faster personal computers and local area networks. This new family of controllers provides superior performance that will facilitate the wide-scale adoption of GbE technology by the SMB and consumer markets," said Thomas Lagatta, Broadcom's Group Vice President, Enterprise Computing Group. "The new NetLink controllers are poised to redefine new uses for the PC that enable compelling and exciting SMB and consumer functions such as sharing multimedia files over a home network. Leading OEM/ODM customers, such as AOpen, Asustek, Epox, MSI, Wistron and Zida, are aggressively driving this advanced technology adoption in the SMB segment and are demanding that Broadcom fuel that integration."

Since small businesses and consumers are demanding more from their LANs, the time for the broad adoption of Gigabit Ethernet has arrived. Utilizing Fast Ethernet with the current generation of personal computers has inhibited the network's effective contribution to end-user output as today's PCs are able to complete more tasks than the FE network can efficiently support. With Broadcom's NetLink BCM5788 and BCM5788M, Gigabit Ethernet network performance is now a reality for SMB and consumer applications, as is already the case in enterprise networks, enabling these networks to be on par with the performance delivered by the current and future generation of personal computers.

"By utilizing Broadcom's NetLink GbE controllers in our consumer and SMB computer platforms, network performance increases and, in turn, enables new features and functionality while achieving higher levels of reliability and customer satisfaction," said Vincent Lai, Marketing Manager for Micro-Star International's Sales Division. "With Broadcom's NetLink family of Gigabit Ethernet controllers, we are seeing a significant increase in demand from client users for GbE-enabled desktop PCs and mobile PCs as a means to unlock new computing potential in the work environment as well as increase productivity."

"The mainstream migration from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet is well underway, having first occurred in servers and then with enterprise clients," said Sean Lavey, Semiconductor Program Manager for IDC. "Small businesses and consumers will now be the next to adopt GbE as this connectivity technology achieves much lower costs, while offering the high performance and productivity gains that these segments desire."

Broadcom's new NetLink family of consumer and SMB controllers complement the company's Gigabit Ethernet networking product portfolio that includes switching solutions, security processors, transceivers, and integrated controllers for servers, workstations, desktops and mobile PCs, providing the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of Gigabit Ethernet solutions. Broadcom's Gigabit Ethernet solutions are the most widely deployed and field- proven in the industry.

Availability and Pricing

Samples and production quantities of the NetLink BCM5788 and BCM5788M are currently available to customers. Production ramp is in full swing and units are readily available. Driver certification is completed for all leading client operating systems and all enabling tools are available for immediate delivery. Pricing is available upon request.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. We design, develop and supply complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions incorporating digital, analog and radio frequency (RF) technologies, as well as related hardware and software system- level applications. Our diverse product portfolio addresses every major broadband communications market and includes solutions for digital cable and satellite set-top boxes; high definition television (HDTV); cable and DSL modems and residential gateways; high-speed transmission and switching for local, metropolitan, wide area and storage networking; home and wireless networking; cellular and terrestrial wireless communications; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway and telephony systems; broadband network and security processors; and SystemI/O™ server solutions. These technologies and products support our core mission: Connecting everything®.

Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and 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, 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," 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 its BCM5788 and BCM5788M NetLink GbE controller 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; 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; our ability to scale our operations in response to increases in demand for our products and services; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; 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 and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the numbers, with the capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; 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 loss of a key customer; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a timely manner; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the effects of new and emerging technologies; changes in our product or customer mix; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; 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®, NetLink™, and SystemI/O™ are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

     Broadcom Trade Press Contact
     Scott Harlin
     Sr. Communications Specialist
     949-926-5226
     sharlin@broadcom.com

     Broadcom Business Press Contact
     Bill Blanning
     Sr. Director, Corporate Communications
     949-926-5555
     blanning@broadcom.com

     Broadcom Technical Contact
     Timothy Lau
     Product Line Manager, GbE Controllers
     949-926-5069
     tlau@broadcom.com

     Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
     T. Peter Andrew
     Sr. Director, Investor Relations
     949-926-5663
     andrewtp@broadcom.com

SOURCE  Broadcom Corporation
    -0-                             03/15/2004
    /CONTACT:  trade press, Scott Harlin, Sr. Communications Specialist,
+1-949-926-5226, sharlin@broadcom.com , or business press, Bill Blanning, Sr.
Director, Corporate Communications, +1-949-926-5555, blanning@broadcom.com ,
or technical, Timothy Lau, Product Line Manager, GbE Controllers,
+1-949-926-5069, tlau@broadcom.com , or investor relations, T. Peter Andrew,
Sr. Director, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com , all
of Broadcom Corporation/
    /Web site:  http://www.broadcom.com /
    (BRCM)

CO:  Broadcom Corporation
ST:  California
IN:  CPR ECP TLS MLM ITE
SU:  PDT

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