Marvell Intros System ControllersMarvell Intros System Controllers

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Marvell(R) (NASDAQ: MRVL), a technology leader in the development of extreme broadband communications and storage solutions, today announced the industry's fastest system controller architecture for MIPS(R)and PowerPC(R) processor-based systems. Building upon Marvell's industry-standard Discovery(TM) platform, the new Discovery III devices are optimally designed for a broad range of applications, from sophisticated routers, switches and wireless base stations to high-volume storage and laser printer applications. These innovative, feature-rich devices have received support from industry's leading CPU vendors such as IBM(R) (NYSE: IBM), Motorola(R) (NYSE: MOT) and PMC-Sierra(TM) (NASDAQ: PMCS).

The Discovery III family is the industry's first to support 200 MHz interface for next generation high performance PowerPC and MIPS CPUs. The six devices in the Discovery III family offer a rich feature mix incorporating a 100 Gbps non-blocking crossbar architecture, advanced communications peripherals and optimized interfaces, setting new technology benchmarks for performance and integration. Additionally, the Discovery III integrates RAID engines to accelerate next generation storage applications

"Since its launch in December 2000, the Discovery family of system controllers has been established as the market leader with multiple design wins", said Balaji Baktha, Marvell's General Manager for the Embedded and Emerging Products Business Unit. "The Marvell Discovery III family offers multiple devices with a wide range of features that enable high performance systems as well as cost effective high-volume applications."

"IBM PowerPC embedded microprocessors offer superior performance, scalability, integration and power efficiency for demanding applications, said Lisa Su, Director of Power PC and Emerging Products, IBM Microelectronics. "Marvell's new Discovery III system controller combined with IBM's PowerPC 750GX microprocessor offers embedded system designers a high-performance solution for demanding next-generation applications."

"We are excited about the availability of Marvell's new Discovery III development system because it fully leverages the SMP capabilities of our MPC7455/57 PowerPC processors and MPX bus protocols to speed up overall system performance," said Glenn Beck, Marketing Manager for Motorola's Computing Platforms Division. "Marvell and Motorola have a long history of delivering complementary solutions that benefit our respective customers. The innovative architecture of Discovery III enables system designers to develop cutting-edge solutions for next-generation applications based on Motorola's high-performance PowerPC processors."

"Marvell's new Discovery III system controller offers a level of performance and integration ideal for building high-performance MIPS-based(TM) subsystems," said Tom Riordan, Vice President and General Manager of PMC-Sierra's Microprocessor Products Division. "When paired with PMC-Sierra's powerful single or dual 1 GHz RM9000 family processors or the RM5200(TM) and RM7000(TM) family processors, the market now has a new best-of-breed solution with leading edge, no compromise performance."

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.