SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Netergy Microelectronics, Inc., a subsidiary of 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT), and Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2) today announced an agreement under which the companies will partner to enable voice services over powerline communications.

Powerline communications (PLC) is a broadband Internet access solution that uses the utility lines over which electrical power is provided to a home or business. PLC's advantages over other broadband access solutions such as DSL and cable include the ubiquitous presence of utility line connections and bandwidth capabilities up to 200 Mbps. DS2 is the leading provider of silicon and system solutions for the PLC market, which is forecasted to grow to 98 million lines by 2008.

DS2 and Netergy already cooperate to provide OEM's with reference design solutions combining Netergy's T2U Voice-over-IP (VoIP) processor and its Veracity suite of VoIP firmware with DS2's existing DSS4200 high speed PLC digital modem chip. Under the new agreement, Netergy will provide DS2 with Veracity software for DS2 to port to their next generation powerline modem chipsets. The new solution will bring lower cost user modems with higher speed than today's products.

"We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to expand our relationship with the best in breed of PLC," said Christopher Peters, Netergy's CEO. "The DS2 solution has the clear market lead in tapping the vast potential of this technology for large scale deployment worldwide."

"Voice communications services offer a compelling value proposition to providers of PLC services and to their customers," said Jorge Blasco, DS2's CEO. "We feel that Veracity software is the most complete VoIP solution available. It provides our OEM customers with a bridge to more integrated, lower cost and higher performance solutions."

Netergy Microelectronics Inc.

Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2)