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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 11, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 32

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Breaking News - Networking:

Marvell Launches Horizon Family Communication Controller

Marvell, a technology leader in the development of extreme broadband communications and storage solutions, announced the third generation of the Horizon family, the industry's most powerful WAN to Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) LAN communication controller. Built upon two generations of industry leading Horizon technology, the third generation provides a new level of intelligence by incorporating high-level enterprise networking features such as network security and Quality of Service (QoS). The Horizon III family is targeted at leading OEMs, migrating from Fast Ethernet to GbE, enabling them to build feature-rich, highly integrated and cost optimized routers.

The rapid transition from Fast Ethernet to GbE in the converged networking applications market, such as edge routers, media gateways and Voice over IP equipment has accelerated the need for scalable and cost effective communication controllers. To meet this demand, Horizon III family of products integrate on a single chip, varied high performance CPU interfaces supporting MIPS and PowerPC architectures, allowing OEMs to scale their systems by choosing the CPU that best fits their performance and cost requirements. In addition, Marvell offers a complete evaluation and development platform including schematics and documentation, enabling customers to start system development at an early stage, reducing the overall system cost and shortening product development cycles.

A key element of the Horizon III family of products is the inclusion of Marvell NetGX co-processor technology, tailored to enhance data path processing such as full IP security encryption and authentication protocols as well as flow calcification and ATM features. The advanced features will enable the introduction of highly secured, feature-rich enterprise products with minimal effort. In addition, Marvell offers an extensive set of production ready software packages as well as a complete SDK tool chain providing leading OEMs with the flexibility to develop their own application specific software, enabling fastest time to market.

"Marvell was the first to support telecom-quality communications to enterprise customers connecting to the Internet with our Horizon family of controllers, "said Alon Hurwitz, Director of Product Marketing for the Communications and System Controllers. "We have been continuously working with our customers to ensure our third generation of Horizon controllers will meet their anticipated needs and together with IBM and PMC-Sierra would address the increasing demand for scalable and integrated solutions."

"IBM PowerPC embedded microprocessors offer superior performance, scalability, integration, and power efficiency for demanding applications," said Lisa Su, Director of PowerPC and Emerging Products, IBM Microelectronics. "IBM's PowerPC 750FX and 750GX processors, combined with Marvell's new Horizon communications controller, can offer embedded system designers a high- performance solution for demanding next-generation applications."

"Today's communications applications must deliver high-bandwidth architectures which require both high-speed networking interfaces and a high-performance processor subsystem," said John Monson, Vice President of Marketing for PMC- Sierra's Microprocessor Products Division. "The PMC-Sierra RM5200, RM7000 and RM9000 families combined with the Marvell Horizon companion controller family, deliver the ideal solution to address the scalability and expanding performance requirements of today's networking marketplace."

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