Broadcom Introduces Ultra-Low Power Wi-Fi® Chips Optimized for Mobile Devices

IRVINE, Calif., Oct 23, 2006 -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced a new family of ultra-low power 54g® wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions that enable high-performance Wi-Fi® connectivity in a wide range of mobile devices and portable consumer electronics. Offering industry-leading power consumption and enhanced wireless coverage, the new Broadcom® Wi-Fi solutions are perfectly suited for the growing number of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones, portable media players, handheld gaming systems and digital cameras. Building upon a highly stable software base that has been field-proven in over 100 million 54g units shipped to date, these new chips combine innovative new performance features with the industry's most established Wi-Fi technology brand.

"We expect the embedded Wi-Fi market to reach over one billion cumulative shipments by the end of 2010," said Philip Solis, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. "As more consumer electronics manufacturers respond to the demand for high-speed wireless data capabilities, Wi-Fi chipmakers will be required to deliver solutions that address new size, cost and power paradigms."

Self-Sufficient Wi-Fi System for Embedded Applications

Announced today is the latest generation of industry-leading 54g solutions from Broadcom -- the BCM4326 (for 802.11b/g applications) and the BCM4328 (for 802.11a/b/g solutions). The new chips' unique architecture incorporates self-contained Wi-Fi systems that simplifies the integration into consumer electronics designs and fulfills the stringent requirements for embedding Wi-Fi into a new generation of electronic devices. A number of key innovations are introduced with these products including:

• unparalleled power performance;
• unique algorithms for improved coexistence with Bluetooth® wireless radios;
• enhancements to Broadcom's field-proven Wi-Fi software stack;
• superior RF performance (enabled by enhanced circuitry) that significantly improves radio sensitivity.

Both the BCM4326 and BCM4328 WLAN solutions combine highly-integrated single-chip 802.11Wi-Fi transceivers and radios with an innovative software architecture that drastically reduces the Wi-Fi subsystem's total power consumption. Whereas alternative Wi-Fi solutions can quickly drain the batteries of small mobile devices, Broadcom's low power chips intelligently manage how they transmit and receive data packets, delivering high-performance wireless capabilities while extending battery life. These techniques contribute to exceptional power performance that enables a 54Mbps full-rate active receive power consumption of less than 270 mW (the lowest such power figure in the industry), and provides an attractive solution for developers of battery operated devices, such as mobile phones.

In addition, either the BCM4326 or BCM4328 can be easily combined with Broadcom's proven Bluetooth, VoIP, multimedia processor, FM radio and cellular solutions, providing manufacturers with best-in-class features and a streamlined path to integration. Broadcom's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth solutions employ advanced InConcert™ co-existence technology that reduces interference and ensures optimal performance in dual-mode devices for a variety of applications. This facilitates new usage models, such as streaming content across the Wi-Fi link while simultaneously enabling Bluetooth headphones with clear and uninterrupted sonic quality. Several leading embedded module developers are creating unique solutions that combine these new Wi-Fi chips with other Broadcom technologies, enabling a faster time-to-market for next generation mobile devices.

Broadcom's new BCM4326 and BCM4328 Wi-Fi chips feature a software stack that is based on field-proven 54g technology and includes Broadcom's popular SecureEasySetup™ application for simple configuration set up. This industry-leading software stack has been ported to a wide range of operating systems across a diverse product base with proven WLAN performance -- a definite necessity for today's embedded designs. Building upon this mature software, the new chip architecture features a complete on-chip device driver implementation that isolates Wi-Fi tasks. As a result, this unique driver avoids burdening the host processor (within mobile devices) and readily enables the addition of WLAN capabilities to consumer devices that often lack the necessary processing power to support wireless networking. System battery life is further enhanced through the combination of complete on-chip driver control and other sophisticated software capabilities.

Optimized for Mobile Devices

Broadcom's single-chip architecture meets the stringent size and cost requirements of today's mobile devices. Its chip-scale packaging provides a footprint of less than 50 mm2, allowing it to be embedded directly into the smallest Wi-Fi devices or used as part of the standardized modules preferred by many consumer electronics designers. The highly integrated architecture combines Broadcom's third generation 802.11g radio, MAC and baseband, along with advanced power management circuitry on a single chip. This reduces bill of materials and overall system costs, making the chips particularly attractive for high-volume applications.

"Wi-Fi has completely transformed the way people connect to the Internet and has consequently inspired developers of an increasingly diverse range of devices to envision the advantages that wireless connectivity can add to their products," said Michael Hurlston, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Wireless LAN line of business. "This new family of ultra-low power chips will leverage Broadcom's leadership in Wi-Fi to ensure optimum interoperability for this new generation of connected devices and help drive the widespread adoption of wireless connectivity in portable consumer devices."

Same Great Features plus Enhanced Wireless Coverage

Broadcom's new low power chips round out its market leading family of 54g Wi-Fi solutions, which are featured in the most popular brands of networking equipment, PCs, broadband modems, printers, gaming systems and set-top boxes. The BCM4326 and BCM4328 also feature unique range-enhancement technology that boosts the range of wireless devices by up to 25 percent, with no increase in power dissipation. This new Wi-Fi advancement from Broadcom directly leverages technologies that were developed for latest generation MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) radio devices to significantly improve the ability of the radio to detect even faint Wi-Fi signals, ensuring more reliable Wi-Fi coverage and fewer dead spots for mobile device users.

Availability

The BCM4326 and BCM4328 are now sampling to early access customers. Prices are available upon request. Broadcom offers a variety of reference designs with several package options and host interfaces (USB, SDIO and SPI) to accommodate existing and future design architectures.

Broadcom's Wireless LAN Product Family

Broadcom's high performance AirForce™ wireless LAN product line includes 54g (the world's most popular Wi-Fi technology), and Intensi-fi™ (the industry's first draft-802.11n chipsets). In addition to transceiver solutions that provide single- and dual-band wireless connectivity, Broadcom integrates wireless network processors, communications technologies and its OneDriver™ software solutions into reference designs that speed customer time to market. The industry's leading manufacturers are developing computers, routers, peripherals, phones, broadband modems and a variety of consumer electronics devices connected by Broadcom technologies.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Our products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. Broadcom provides 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, one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies with annual revenue of more than $2.67 billion, is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has 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 Wi-Fi 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, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; uncertainties as a result of the company's previously-disclosed ongoing review of its practices in respect of options/equity grants to employees, and the publicized more general review of option grant practices throughout the technology and other industries by public regulatory bodies, and potential changes in accounting and other practices resulting therefrom; 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; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; 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; 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 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; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; 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; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; 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, assembly and test 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 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, subsequent 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, 54g®, AirForce™, InConcert™, Intensi-fi™ and OneDriver™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Wi-Fi® is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Bluetooth® is a trademark of the Bluetooth SIG. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Heather Roberts
Media Relations Manager
408-922-8195
hrobertsl@broadcom.com

Broadcom Technical Contact
David Chou
Senior Marketing Manager, WLAN
408-922-5470
dlc@broadcom.com

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

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Mobile and Wireless

Trade Press, Heather Roberts, Media Relations Manager, +1-408-922-8195, hrobertsl@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com, or Technical, David Chou, Senior Marketing Manager, WLAN, +1-408-922-5470, dlc@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation

http://www.broadcom.com