Broadcom Ships 25 Millionth NetXtreme™ Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Latest Milestone Confirms Broadcom's Leadership in the GbE NIC/LOM Silicon Market as NetXtreme Continues to be the Controller Technology of Choice For Business Desktops, Notebooks, Workstations and Servers

SEATTLE, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2004 -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced that this month it will ship its 25 millionth NetXtreme™ Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controller chip. This significant milestone demonstrates the widespread adoption of GbE technology within the enterprise and throughout the business PC market. Broadcom® NetXtreme controllers continue to be the GbE controller of choice for business desktops, notebooks, workstations and servers from all leading Tier 1 OEM PC manufacturers and other leading OEM/ODM customers worldwide. As the pioneer of Gigabit Ethernet-over-copper integrated circuit technology, Broadcom has led the industry migration from legacy 10/100 Fast Ethernet (FE) to Gigabit Ethernet in PCs and switching solutions.

In support of this leading market position, Broadcom also announced last week that it achieved the worldwide market leadership position in Ethernet semiconductor revenues in 2003 according to IDC's "Worldwide Ethernet Semiconductor 2003 Vendor Analysis." As indicated by IDC, Broadcom reached the top position based on its success in securing Gigabit Ethernet NIC/LOM designs within certain top accounts. IDC also reported that Broadcom's combined FE and GbE revenue grew almost 50% year-over-year.

"Achieving 25 million units shipped is a validation of both Gigabit Ethernet and Broadcom's industry-leading technology," said Thomas Lagatta, Group Vice President of Broadcom's Enterprise Computing Group. "Seven generations of field proven, stable and consistent NetXtreme technology have brought us to this market leading position. We intend to continue introducing innovative products to maintain and expand our lead."

Through implementing GbE throughout the enterprise network, users are provided with an enhanced computing experience that increases network performance and productivity, while reducing CPU utilization and network congestion. Gigabit Ethernet connections can provide dramatic performance and productivity improvement over 10/100 Fast Ethernet connections running everyday business applications on client systems such as e-mail, Web browsing, databases and disk backup.

The latest members of the NetXtreme controller family represent the world's first GbE controllers to implement the advanced PCI Express™ host interface. As enterprise servers and clients migrate to increasingly faster Ethernet speeds, PCI Express allows the LAN connection architecture to scale in parallel with end users' throughput requirements. The Broadcom BCM5721 (for high-performance servers), BCM5751 (for desktop and workstation PCs) and BCM5751M (for mobile PCs) are designed specifically to address the needs of these high performance computing platforms.

Broadcom's Gigabit Ethernet networking product portfolio includes switching products, transceivers, security processors and controllers for servers, workstations, desktops and mobile PCs, providing the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of Gigabit Ethernet solutions. Its GbE solutions are the most widely deployed and field proven in the industry.

Product Information

Built upon seven generations of Gigabit Ethernet media access controller (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) transceiver technology, the NetXtreme product family currently includes the BCM5700, BCM5701, BCM5702, BCM5703, BCM5704, BCM5705 & BCM5705M, and the BCM5721, BCM5751 & BCM5751M. Beginning with the BCM5701, NetXtreme controllers have utilized a fully integrated 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet MAC that is designed specifically for LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) and network interface card (NIC) applications. The entire product family is fabricated in low-voltage, competitive CMOS process technologies that provide low cost, high integration, and low power consumption to enable small form factor designs.

Availability and Pricing

All Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet controllers are currently available to customers. 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 Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet 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 and consumer 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 timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; 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®, NetXtreme™, and SystemI/O™ are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. PCI Express™ is a trademark of PCI-SIG. Any other trademarks or trade names 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
     Sean Hall
     Channel Marketing Manager
     949-926-5267
     shall@broadcom.com

     Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
     T. Peter Andrew Sr.
     Director, Investor Relations
     949-926-5663
     andrewtp@broadcom.com
SOURCE  Broadcom Corporation
    -0-                             05/03/2004
    /CONTACT:  Media, Scott Harlin, Sr. Communications Specialist,
+1-949-926-5226, or sharlin@broadcom.com, or Bill Blanning, Sr. Director,
Corporate Communications, +1-949-926-5555, or blanning@broadcom.com, or
Technical Contact, Sean Hall, Channel Marketing Manager, +1-949-926-5267, or
shall@broadcom.com, or Investors, T. Peter Andrew Sr., Director, Investor
Relations, +1-949-926-5663, or andrewtp@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom
Corporation/
    /Web site:  http://www.broadcom.com /
    (BRCM)

CO:  Broadcom Corporation
ST:  Washington
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SU:  PDT

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