Agere Announces GPRS Chipset

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A, AGR.B) today announced a new high-performance General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) hardware and software solution that delivers up to 10 times the processing power of previous Agere mobile terminal solutions. Using a new microprocessor core, this integrated chip set and software platform enables such advanced, high-speed multimedia and entertainment applications for GSM-based mobile phones as real-time audio and video streaming, digital photo imaging, MP3 music capabilities, MPEG4 video playback and interactive games.

Agere's Sceptre(R) HP chip set provides a two-chip solution -- for integrating digital baseband, power management and mixed signal functions -- coupled with an ARM(R)946E-S embedded core, flexible cached memory system and DSP instruction set extensions running at 90 megahertz. This high-performance solution provides all of the power needed to handle wireless communications and applications processing without the need for a separate applications processor.

Agere's chipset and software also offer advanced connectivity options for new mobile phone designs, including an on-chip USB controller, infrared (IrDA) capability, removable secure digital (SD) and multimedia memory cards (MMC), and Bluetooth(R) support. This flexibility allows users to easily exchange digital pictures, audio and other files between a mobile phone and such devices as PCs and PDAs.

"Mobile phone users have moved beyond standard voice communications to embrace such high-bandwidth data features as video downloads, music, digital photography, Internet access and electronic commerce transactions," said Luc Seraphin, vice president of Agere's Mobile Terminals division. "Agere's Sceptre HP hardware and software platform delivers both the superior processing power required for these high-speed applications and the field- proven performance that enables our customers to rapidly deploy new handset designs into the global market."

The Sceptre HP solution achieves these processing improvements while maintaining low power consumption. The chip set and software allow for 180 minutes of talk time and more than 600 hours standby time with a standard 600- milliamp (mAHr) battery. This power savings is achieved by closely coupling power management with baseband processing, as opposed to competing single-chip designs that do not integrate power management. The ARM946E-S core includes an internal cache, allowing the core to access instructions and data faster than using external memory, with lower power consumption as well.

Agere's Sceptre HP solution supports quad band operation (850, 900, 1800 and 1900MHZ), enabling phones that can be used in any GSM network, which are deployed across Europe, Asia and North America. The GSM communications standard is used in more than 70 percent of the world's cell phones, with GPRS providing 2.5G advanced mobile data services in GSM handsets.

Ensuring a mobile phone is operational in real-world networks is imperative for the rapid rollout of mobile phones to the global market. Agere's core GSM/GPRS system has undergone extensive performance testing as well as interoperability certification with virtually all major network equipment vendors, allowing phone makers to save valuable months of operator approvals and product development. Agere's GPRS software has been developed to the GSM Release 99 specification and qualified to the most current industry standards, including the GCF 3.10.2 and NAPRD 2.8.0 test specifications. The chip set and software are capable of Class 12 GPRS support.

The Sceptre HP solution delivers a complete GPRS software package, including multimedia messaging service (MMS), Java software technology, wireless application protocol (WAP) browser capabilities, and polyphonic sound.

Engineering samples of Agere's Sceptre HP chip set and software are available this month, with production quantities expected in early 2004.

Agere Systems