Broadcom Announces the World's First Bluetooth® EDR Chip for Advanced Wireless Stereo Headsets

IRVINE, Calif., June 27, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors, today announced a single-chip Bluetooth® solution optimized for wireless stereo headsets. The new chip features Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) capabilities that provide superior audio fidelity and longer battery life for an improved end-user experience. The new device is the first Bluetooth chip designed specifically for stereo headsets offered by Broadcom, and is the first product resulting from the company's recent acquisition of wireless audio specialist Zeevo, Inc.

Electronics manufacturers continue to offer advanced digital audio capabilities in an increasingly wide array of products, including cellular phones, PDAs and other devices capable of playing digital music files. At the same time, the presence of Bluetooth wireless technology has expanded in these devices, enabling consumers to enjoy a convenient, un-tethered listening experience. The Bluetooth wireless headset market has grown significantly as manufacturers introduce products to take advantage of the technology. In-Stat market research estimates that wireless headsets will grow to nearly 90 million units per year by 2008.

"This new EDR capable Bluetooth stereo headset design, based on technology we obtained through our acquisition of Zeevo, extends our leadership position in the stereo headset market," said Scott Bibaud, Senior Director of Marketing for Broadcom's Bluetooth products. "Our new BCM2037 chip truly moves the bar higher in terms of the required features for wireless stereo headsets, including advanced digital audio processing and EDR for longer batter life resulting in much more satisfying user experience."

The Broadcom® Blutonium® BCM2037 stereo headset chip includes a Bluetooth baseband and radio, as well as an optimized architecture designed to provide the best audio experience possible for users of wireless stereo headsets. In particular, the BCM2037 is the first headset-specific chip available that includes EDR, a technology that triples the data rate of non-EDR Bluetooth chips from 1 Megabits per second (Mb/s) to 3 Mb/s. To complement this solution, Broadcom has already introduced an EDR chip (the BCM2045) for host products such as cellular phones, notebook computers and other mobile devices. The higher throughput significantly reduces power consumption by minimizing transmit times and thereby increasing the battery life of headsets based on the BCM2037.

The higher data-rate of EDR also provides other user advantages such as:
* A more robust connection between the headset and the host by enabling the system to retransmit packets and refill buffers faster, minimizing the possibility of missed packets or interrupted audio
* The ability for a device based on the BCM2037 to connect and maintain simultaneous links to multiple Bluetooth enabled devices, such as an MP3 player, a phone, and a personal computer
* The ability to stream stereo audio from a single source to multiple headsets
* The ability to transmit full, uncompressed stereo audio rather than imposing limits on the types of audio files that can be transmitted to the headset

Optimized Stereo Audio Architecture

Catering to the specific requirements of manufacturers of stereo wireless headsets, the BCM2037 features a unique architecture that offers specialized audio processing for stereo applications. The design improves audio processing efficiency to reduce power consumption and delivers a superior stereo experience over a Bluetooth link. The chip is powered by an on-board ARM7™ processor, providing a familiar software development environment that allows manufacturers to easily port software from one product to another, thereby decreasing development time, while improving time-to-market for their products.

Availability

The BCM2037 is currently sampling to Broadcom's early access partners with production availability expected in the third quarter of 2005.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors. Our products enable the convergence of high-speed data, high definition video, voice and audio at home, in the office and on the go. Broadcom provides manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices with the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.

Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with annual revenue of more than $2 billion. The company is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom 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 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 Bluetooth 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 wireless networking applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; 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; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; 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, 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; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; 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; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; 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; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly 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 new and emerging technologies; 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®, the Connecting everything logo and Blutonium® 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 the Bluetooth SIG. ARM7™ is a trademark of ARM Holding Co. Ltd. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Henry Rael
Public Relations Manager
949-926-5734
hrael@broadcom.com

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

Broadcom Technical Contact
Scott Bibaud
Sr. Director of Marketing, Bluetooth Products
949-926-5868
sbibaud@broadcom.com

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation