Agere Systems Introduces Advanced PCI Express(R) and Gigabit Ethernet Interface Solutions

"The PC marketplace can rely on Agere for very high quality, future-proof products with all the right features, and at the right price," said Brendan O'Flaherty, director of marketing for Agere's Ethernet division. "The ET1310 and ET1011 bring PC OEMs and ODMs native PCI Express plus significantly lower power consumption, far better packaging and better design-in and software driver support."

Agere's new network interface card/LAN-on-motherboard (NIC/LOM) offerings come to market ahead of several changes in the personal computing market: the transition from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet, the migration to PCI Express and the emergence of 64-bit CPUs for the mainstream desktop computing market.

Market research firm IDC estimates that more than 80 million Gigabit Ethernet PC system ports will ship in 2005. Tier one global PC OEMs today have made Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 megabits per second (Mbps) connectivity the de facto standard in new PCs for both business platforms and consumer platforms.

Executives from the world's two largest PC microprocessor vendors commented on the fact that Agere is bringing these important new technologies to market:

"PCI Express gives computer OEMs and the buyers they serve much higher performance, as you would expect with the jump to serial I/O," said Jim Pappas, director of initiative marketing for Intel's Enterprise Platform Group. "For us, this first wave of native PCI Express controllers indicates exactly the kind of momentum and innovation that the industry envisioned when it first began to develop the specification."

"As PCI Express continues to gain momentum, Agere's ET1310 Gigabit Ethernet controller will be an excellent complement to the AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor's HyperTransport(TM) technology," said John Morris, manager of desktop product marketing, AMD's Computation Products Group. "AMD's innovative Direct Connect Architecture coupled with the excellent performance from Agere's new low-power Gigabit Ethernet controller should make for exciting times for OEMs and PC users alike."

In addition to built-in TruePHY GbE, the ET1310 is designed specifically for the high-throughput, low-latency capabilities of PCI Express. These enhanced capabilities allow for optimal on-chip memory size and utilization, which translates to significant power savings. The ET1310 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller is expected to be the lowest power controller available to builders of 2005 PCs. The ET1310 also supports many of the most advanced capabilities of PCI Express, including Active State Power Management, Advanced Error Reporting, relaxed ordering rules in the split transaction interface and multiple traffic classes.

Comprehensive software support is bundled with the ET1310, including cable diagnostic tools, manufacturing test utilities and internationalized software drivers for Microsoft(R) Windows XP, 2000, 98 and ME, NDIS 6.0 (Longhorn) and Linux 2.2 and 2.4.

The new standalone TruePHY ET1011 with PC-ready RGMII and RTBI interfaces in a compact, 10 mm x 10 mm x 1 mm, 68-pin MLCC package is sampling today. The ET1310 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller utilizes the same 68-pin MLCC package and will be sampling in the third quarter of 2004.

Agere's MLCC package is a leadless design that provides a small footprint and eliminates bent pins, allowing for better manufacturing yield. The ET1310 requires routing of only 12 signal traces between the device and the core logic chipset, significantly simplifying four-layer motherboard designs relative to the PCI-based devices offered by Agere's competitors. The high thermal efficiency of the ET1310 MLCC package supports operation in ambient temperatures of up to 85 degrees C without requiring heat sinks or active airflow, providing the highest level of flexibility in physical placement in space constrained applications such as mobile platforms and small form factor PCs, and broad application in extended temperature segments.

Both devices will be delivered to manufacturers with the Agere mark for high quality and fully-audited validation and testing. Additionally, both devices support standard as well as lead (Pb)-free package options, supporting the industry's ongoing transition to Pb-free electronic packaging.

Agere Systems is a global leader in semiconductors for storage, wireless data, and public and enterprise networks. The company's chips and software power a broad range of computing and communications applications, from cell phones, PCs, PDAs, hard disk drives and gaming devices to the world's most sophisticated wireless and wireline networks. Agere's customers include the top manufacturers of consumer electronics, communications and computing equipment. Agere's products make personal broadband a reality, connecting people to information and entertainment -- at home, at work and on the road.

Visit Agere's Web site at http://www.agere.com/ . Customers in the U.S. may also call the Agere Systems Customer Response Center at 1-800-372-2447. Customers in Canada may call 1-800-553-2448. Customers outside those countries may call 1-610-712-4323. Fax inquiries may be directed to 1-610- 712-4106, or e-mail queries to docmaster@agere.com . Written inquiries should be sent to Agere Systems, Room 10A-301C, 1110 American Parkway NE, Lehigh Valley Central Campus, Allentown, PA, 18109, USA.

Agere is a registered trademark and Agere Systems, the Agere Systems logo and TruePHY are trademarks of Agere Systems Inc.

  PCI Express is a registered trademark of PCI-SIG.

  Athlon and HyperTransport are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

  Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

CONTACT: Gale Morrison, +1-610-712-6194, or mobile +1-610-213-5761, or
gmorrison@agere.com, or Vibha Agrawal, +1-610-712-1737, or mobile,
+1-908-256-6234, or vagrawal@agere.com, both of Agere Systems Inc.

Web site: http://www.agere.com/