Broadcom's MPEG-4/AVC Chipsets Selected by DIRECTV for the World's First Advanced HDTV Set-Top Box Platform

Broadcom's MPEG-4/AVC Chipsets Selected by DIRECTV for the World's First Advanced HDTV Set-Top Box Platform

Product Demonstrations for the New DIRECTV/LG Electronics HDTV MPEG-4/AVC Set-Top Box Will Occur in Broadcom's Meeting Room at CES

LAS VEGAS, 2006 International CES, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM), a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors, today announced that its MPEG-4/AVC silicon, featuring new video compression functionality, is being used as the core technology in DIRECTV's digital high-definition television (HDTV) set-top boxes. Production versions of Broadcom(R)MPEG-4/AVC chips were provided to LG Electronics in October 2005, enabling it to incorporate Broadcom's powerful video compression functionality into its LG-manufactured set-top boxes for DIRECTV. As a result, DIRECTV became the first provider in the world to launch a set-top box that incorporates HDTV MPEG4/AVC technology.

Broadcom will be demonstrating this first-of-its-kind HDTV set-top box at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Meeting Room #35781, South Hall 4 from January 5 through 8, 2006.

Having previously announced plans to dramatically expand HDTV programming for local and national broadcast channels, DIRECTV required MPEG-4/AVC technology to help meet its future strategic objectives. By incorporating MPEG-4/AVC technology into its set-top boxes, DIRECTV will accomplish a 2 to 3 times improvement in the number of HD channels that can be carried within the same bandwidth over prior MPEG-2 technology.

"Broadcom established itself as the early leader in the MPEG-4 marketplace," said Roger Lambert, Vice President of Set-Top Box Products, DIRECTV. "As MPEG-4/AVC video compression is a key technology element to our set-top box strategy, Broadcom has become a key partner in this segment."

"We are very pleased that our new relationship with DIRECTV and LG Electronics has produced the world's first set-top box incorporating HDTV MPEG4/AVC technology," said Dan Marotta, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Broadband Business Group. "A complete team effort went into the production launch of this very complex technology, which we feel will set the benchmark for future HDTV set-top box products."

As part of the demonstration at CES, Broadcom will perform live DIRECTV decoding on two platforms. The first platform demonstrates the DIRECTV/LG Electronics HDTV set-top box launched by DIRECTV. The second platform is a high-definition MPEG-4/AVC Broadcom reference design that employs Broadcom's recently announced BCM4501 8PSK DVB-S2 demodulator.

Broadcom is the first company to develop a DVB-S2 satellite receiver chip that integrates the demodulators and tuners into a single-chip design. Other silicon solutions require separate DVB-S2 tuners and demodulators, which significantly increase the number of components on the receiver design and result in increased bill of material costs as well as power consumption.

Broadcom's Broadband Communications Business Group

Broadcom offers manufacturers a range of broadband communications and consumer electronics SoCs that enable voice, video and data services over residential wired and wireless networks. These highly integrated silicon solutions continue to enable the market's most advanced system solutions, which include digital cable, satellite and IP set-top boxes and media servers, broadband modems and residential gateways, high definition and digital televisions, HD DVD players and personal video recorders.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors. Our products enable the convergence of high-speed data, high definition video, voice and audio at home, in the office and on the go. Broadcom provides manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices with the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything(R).

Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with annual revenue of more than $2 billion. The company is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.

Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with video compression and set-top box products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for HD consumer video applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost-effective and timely manner; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of recent events; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.

Broadcom(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Broadcom Press Contact
Laura Brandlin
Director, Marketing Communications
949-926-5108
lbrandlin@broadcom.com

Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Vice President, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com

Broadcom Technical Contact
Caspar Settels
Product Marketing Manager
949-926-6812
caspars@broadcom.com

Source: Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Broadband

CONTACT: Press, Laura Brandlin, Director, Marketing Communications,
+1-949-926-5108, lbrandlin@broadcom.com, or Investor Relations, T. Peter
Andrew, Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663,
andrewtp@broadcom.com, or Technical, Caspar Settels, Product Marketing
Manager, +1-949-926-6812, caspars@broadcom.com, all of Broadcom Corporation

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

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/638552.html

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