DALLAS -- Reaffirming its commitment to becoming a leading supplier of solutions to the optical networking market, Texas Instruments (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced availability of its Blaze Evaluation Kit. Using a combination of TI's acclaimed DSP and DLP(TM) technologies, and targeted at selected companies developing the infrastructure which will enable the networks of the future, the Blaze Evaluation Kit will allow the development of grooming and routing solutions which offer lower cost and higher performance than is currently possible with competing technologies. The first public demonstration of the Blaze Evaluation Kit will be given at the TI booth (2214 in the Anaheim Convention Center) at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference to be held in Anaheim, California March 17th - 22nd. The OFC Conference is the biggest event in the optical communications calendar, last year attracting 38,000 visitors and 977 exhibitors. "The Blaze Evaluation Kit is a truly unique and revolutionary capability that optical networking developers have been demanding for some time," said Richard Knipe, Business Manager for Optical Networking at TI's DLP(TM) Products division. "It will allow them to rapidly develop solutions that are characterized by unprecedented flexibility and outstanding performance at price levels that have previously been unthinkable. We are extremely excited by the opportunity it brings to the industry." Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) For more information on OFC 2002, please visit: www.nottheofc.com