Broadcom's Intensi-fi Router And Client Reference Designs Selected For The Wi-Fi Certified(Tm) N Test Bed And Among First To Obtain Certification

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) , a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its Intensi-fi router and client reference designs are among the first products to obtain Wi-Fi Certified(TM) n designation from Wi-Fi Alliance, based on the newly ratified IEEE 802.11n standard. Wi-Fi certification signifies that Broadcom's solutions have been demonstrated to interoperate with Wi-Fi Certified n products. The Wi-Fi Alliance has also selected the Broadcom BCM94718 and BCM943224 dual band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) router and client reference designs to be part of its Wi-Fi Certified n test bed, a set of products against which other 802.11n products are tested to guarantee interoperability.

Prior to the IEEE's recent ratification of the final 802.11n specification, the Wi-Fi Alliance tested products against draft 2.0 of the standard, providing consumers confidence that their new high speed WLAN purchases would interoperate with one another and with legacy 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g devices. Under this program, more than 700 products have been certified to date. Now that the 802.11n standard has been ratified, the Wi-Fi Alliance has updated its 802.11n certification program so that 'draft-certified' devices are now considered compliant to the final 11n specification. To guarantee compatibility in an increasingly diverse Wi-Fi environment, the new program also tests a variety of optional features and modes that vendors are implementing for specific applications.

"Now that the standard has been ratified, and the final certification is in place, we expect that 802.11n deployments will grow significantly across all segments, and Broadcom is in an ideal position to lead the industry and drive the transition to the new Wi-Fi standard," said Rahul Patel, Sr. Director of Broadcom's WLAN Connectivity Business. "Our Intensi-fi platform has emerged as the industry's premier 802.11n technology, delivering superior performance at a lower cost, while enabling whole-home distribution of multimedia content."

802.11n is poised to be the key growth driver of the WLAN market because it offers much greater performance than legacy Wi-Fi technologies. This enables wireless devices to support the new applications that consumers want such as distributing video throughout their homes and accessing multimedia content on handheld devices. As 802.11n enables further diversification in the universe of Wi-Fi products, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n testing helps to reduce buyer confusion and signifies interoperability between devices, which ensures that the market will continue to grow.

"We congratulate Broadcom on being selected for the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n test bed," said Edgar Figueroa, Executive Director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. "Broadcom's participation in the development of this program has been instrumental in the achievement of industry-wide certification for next generation Wi-Fi products."Since introducing the industry's first draft 802.11n solutions in 2006, Broadcom has maintained compatibility with industry specifications by providing OEMs with regular firmware upgrades throughout the standards process. Broadcom can now provide Wi-Fi equipment vendors (and their customers) with driver updates that ensure compatibility between existing Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 products and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n products.

Intensi-fi Technology Delivers a Better Wireless Multimedia Experience

Broadcom Intensi-fi technology enables a better multimedia experience by boosting the performance and range of Wi-Fi products. Routers and client devices with Broadcom's 802.11n solutions provide ample bandwidth for several high definition (HD) video streams, plus voice over IP (VoIP) calls, gaming and other multimedia applications. To maintain HD video connections throughout a home, Intensi-fi chips leverage a unique receiver architecture that provides the highest quality radio signals of any solution on the market. As a result, manufacturers can achieve superior performance with a 2x2 antenna configuration, without incurring additional costs for more antennas.

Intensi-fi technology also offers more 5 GHz channel options than competing 802.11n chipsets. Broadcom became the first 802.11n supplier to receive FCC certification for dynamic frequency selection (DFS), a technique used to detect and avoid incumbent radar systems, such as military and weather radar, in the 5 GHz band. Intensi-fi solutions also use a number of quality of service (QoS) techniques to enhance wireless voice and video applications and includes a set of important QoS features that helps Wi-Fi routers prioritize audio, video and voice traffic on a wireless network.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide 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 is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2008 revenue of $4.66 billion, and holds over 3,600 U.S. and over 1,350 foreign patents, more than 7,350 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.A FORTUNE 500?? company, Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com.

Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:

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. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the demand for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n products and our position in that market. 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 Broadcom BCM94718 dual-band 802.11n router reference design and the Broadcom BCM943224 dual-band 802.11n client reference design 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 wireless
      communications markets in various geographic regions, including
      seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are
      incorporated;
  --  Delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in the
      markets for 802.11n applications;
  --  Our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and
      evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new
      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; and  --  The timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our
      products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification.

Additional factors that may cause Broadcom's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the list that can be found at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q32009.php.

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, except as required by law.

Broadcom, the pulse logo, Connecting everything, the Connecting everything logo and Intensi-fi are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.