Broadcom Announces Storage Industry First, Demonstrates RAID Controller Spanning across Multiple I/O Controller Types at Storage Networking World

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct 25, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Storage Networking World Show -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced that it will demonstrate RAID controller spanning across multiple I/O controllers this week at the Storage Networking World Show in Orlando, Florida. This capability to seamlessly add and integrate new I/O technologies to an existing RAID configuration is a first of its kind in the storage industry and will be demonstrated in Broadcom's Hospitality Suite at SNW.

IT professionals often encounter two major issues when upgrading or expanding the capabilities of an existing storage subsystem. First, integrating new hardware technologies (such as chipsets, embedded RAID-on-Chip devices, host bus adapters, etc.) with existing storage implementations often requires re-creating the storage platform from scratch and sacrificing the initial storage investment or implementation. Secondly, expanding current storage capacity typically means replacing existing disk storage with greater capacity devices or implementing independent access to the new storage. In both cases, the ability to add and integrate new I/O technologies to an existing RAID configuration can be very costly, requiring a mechanism to protect the storage investment and easily integrate emerging solutions.

Broadcom's new RAID controller spanning technology addresses these two issues by easing the transition and integration of new technologies into the storage subsystem and providing investment protection for the user. Whether upgrading an existing embedded RAID solution to shared storage, networked attached storage (NAS), a storage area network (SAN) or a mid-tier backup appliance, Broadcom provides seamless integration of new technologies while retaining existing storage hardware and RAID software. When adding new hardware to an existing storage subsystem (such as Serial ATA (SATA) or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) storage technologies or application-specific integrated circuits, PCI cards or embedded RAID controller cards), the Broadcom® controller spanning technology will span RAID functionality across all of the attached storage devices while simultaneously increasing RAID functionality across the entire solution.

The controller spanning demonstration at SNW consists of a server platform motherboard based on Broadcom's newly announced HT-1000 Server I/O controller with four Serial ATA ports. As part of the demonstration, Broadcom will first build a RAID array across these four SATA ports embedded on the motherboard. Next, it will join additional drives attached to its RAIDCore™ BC4000 8-port SATA-based RAID controller card to the RAID storage configuration and then seamlessly continue adding more drives attached to the new Broadcom® BCM5773 SATA RAID-on-Chip device within the same RAID configuration.

The ability to combine these three I/O technologies within the existing storage configuration demonstrates the seamless integration of different host controller types, expanding the storage subsystem's functionality and increasing storage capacity while retaining all original data. This seamless integration is made possible by the advanced capabilities of Broadcom's XelCore™ RAID software, which was developed to be highly portable across storage protocols, I/O buses and operating systems.

"Broadcom is the first storage solution provider in the industry to announce this capability allowing users to seamlessly add and integrate new technologies to an existing RAID configuration without the normal problems typically associated with the integration," said Shriraj Gaglani, Senior Storage Product Manager of Broadcom's Storage Line of Business. "The benefits of this type of solution will not only increase the storage subsystem's functionality and storage capacity, but will protect the customer's storage investment."

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, radio frequency (RF), microprocessor and digital signal processing (DSP) 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 digital subscriber line (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 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, 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.

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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.

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     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
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     408-922-3131
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     Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
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     andrewtp@broadcom.com

SOURCE Broadcom

Trade Press Contact, Scott Harlin, Sr. Communications
Specialist, +1-949-926-5226, sharlin@broadcom.com; or Business Press Contact,
Bill Blanning, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications, +1-949-926-5555,
blanning@broadcom.com; or Technical Contact, Paul Griffith, Technical
Marketing Manager, +1-408-922-3131, griffith@broadcom.com; or Investor
Relations, T. Peter Andrew Sr. Director, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663,
andrewtp@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom

http://www.broadcom.com