LAS VEGAS -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced the industry's first 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) serial transceiver in support of the new IEEE 10GBASE-KR standard for running 10Gbps (Gigabits per second) serial data over backplane systems. The new serial transceiver incorporates a sophisticated receive equalizer that extends the life of today's legacy systems running at 1Gbps or XAUI(TM) data rates by providing significant bandwidth improvements on each channel. Additionally, today's announcement further extends the comprehensive Broadcom(R) portfolio of field proven and complete end-to-end 10GbE solutions featuring switching products, transceivers and controllers.

Today's blade servers and advanced telecom computing architecture (ATCA) equipment are self-contained, modularly designed computing systems that typically use a chassis, common backplane and Ethernet connectivity to transfer voice, video and data within the system. However, these computing systems can only support single-channel, low bandwidth capabilities (using 1000BASE-X or 1000BASE-KX standards), or four-channel, low bandwidth per channel capabilities (using the 10GBASE-KX4 standard). With today's higher bandwidth applications (such as virtualization, security and encryption, and multimedia), as well as a need to preserve today's legacy systems running at 1Gbps or XAUI data rates, 10Gbps data must now be driven across the backplane. Broadcom is the first silicon vendor to address this market requirement with its new serial transceiver that supports the new IEEE 802.3ap standard (10GBASE-KR) for backplane systems.

Announced today is the Broadcom BCM8071 serial 10GBASE-KR to XAUI backplane transceiver that builds upon five generations of field proven 10GbE serial PHY technology. Designed in a low power, 90 nanometer CMOS process, the BCM8071 will be demonstrated at this week's Interop 2007 conference and features an all DSP-based 10GbE transceiver that provides enterprise data centers with higher bandwidth and performance, as well as significant savings in cost, resources and manpower when upgrading to 10GbE links. While preserving the existing infrastructure to run these higher bandwidth applications, the BCM8071's sophisticated digital receiver equalizes impairments and maintains low bit error rate performance across existing backplanes.

"As blade servers and ATCA equipment enable high computational processing in the data center, the need for high-speed connectivity becomes a critical element as well," said Lorenzo Longo, Senior Director and General Manager for Broadcom's High-Speed Interconnect Products line of business. "Our new BCM8071 PHY not only supports the IEEE backplane requirements and existing customer backplanes, but also performs signal recovery using advanced digital equalizer technology that results in significant performance advantages when compared to analog solutions."

Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM)