Broadcom Adds Security to Switches

IRVINE, Calif. -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM - News), the leading provider of silicon solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced the Broadcom® BCM5830 and BCM5834, the industry's highest performance integrated secured switch processors that deliver advanced firewall and hardware-accelerated virtual private networks (VPN) capabilities for wired and wireless small-office/home- office (SOHO), remote-office/branch-office (ROBO) and small-to-medium enterprise routers and gateways. These devices are the latest addition to Broadcom's Sentry5(TM) product family that offers the industry's most integrated secured switch processors with complete IPsec processing and Internet Key Exchange (IKE) acceleration, MIPS® processing and Fast Ethernet switching technologies, all incorporated within a single router-system-on-a- chip.

In today's virtual network environment, security is a critical concern for small-to-mid-sized businesses and central offices with branch offices as a means of protecting networks and assets from hackers and unauthorized users. To protect communications and resources against outside threats and vulnerabilities in the perimeter and remote sites, key security technologies such as VPN and firewall are necessary to prevent intruders from hacking into a wired and wireless network infrastructure.

Traditionally, the deployment of discrete high-performance, hardware- accelerated security components is system-engineering intensive, time consuming and adds significant costs to the overall system. In many cases, this results in lower hardware-accelerated security "attach rates," which result in compromised system protection. The integration of high-performance security with other system components within a single router system-on-a-chip, as exemplified in the BCM5830 and BCM5834, enables hardware-accelerated security to be pervasive throughout the network (or enterprise), thus eliminating network performance bottlenecks and reducing the overall system cost of deploying security.

The advanced technology architecture of the Sentry5 product family offers the most optimal functionality and performance-to-price ratio to meet the demands of today's networking equipment manufacturers. The new product offerings integrate an advanced IPsec processor that supports industry- standard security features such as encryption, Internet Key Exchange acceleration and user authentication. As with other Sentry5 products, an on-chip MIPS processor that runs application software and a 5-port 10/100 Ethernet switch are also integrated within the single chip. In addition, software drivers, a comprehensive reference application software suite and reference hardware designs are also available.

"Today's branch offices and small-to-medium enterprises require the advanced security capabilities and maximum performance-to-price ratio made possible by Broadcom's newest products in the Sentry5 product family," said Dr. Ford Tamer, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Enterprise Networking Business Unit. "Our latest secured switch processors deliver the best-in-class security performance to protect business networks against security threats, whether benign or malicious. Broadcom has uniquely pioneered this trend and strategy of making security ubiquitous across the entire network by inexpensively providing integrated system-level functions, product family scalability and compatibility."

Broadcom Corp.