March 12, 2001 - SwitchCore AB (publ.) and National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM) today announced a non-exclusive partnership that is focused on providing end-to-end solutions for the rapidly growing Gigabit switch market. National Semiconductor, a leader in "Driving Gigabit to the Desktop", and SwitchCore, with their breakthrough CXE? switching technology, will provide the optimal system solution for Gigabit Ethernet switches to accelerate the migration from 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet over the installed base of Category 5 cables.
The partnership is aimed at driving the fast growing Gigabit-to-the-Desktop market, a market demanding a reasonably-priced Gigabit Ethernet over copper solution along with backward compatability to installed 10/100 Ethernet connections. As a result of this partnership, National's high-performance GigPHYTER? physical layer technology, combined with SwitchCore's highly integrated, feature-rich switch products, will enable a ready-to-build Gigabit Ethernet switch reference design, fast time-to-market and compact system solutions for customers.
"National and SwitchCore share the same goal of "Driving Gigabit to the Desktop". Our collaboration in enabling end-to-end solutions allows us to provide customers with the optimal combination of price, performance and power consumption for their Gigabit switch applications," said Kevan Smith, marketing director of Network Products Group at National Semiconductor. "Through this alliance, we will leverage the strengths of both companies to drive the growth of this explosive Gigabit switch market."
Worldwide revenues for the Gigabit Ethernet switch market are expected to reach $4.7 billion in 2001, then increase to $9.3 billion in 2004, according to the analyst firm Dell'Oro Group. The partnership will allow both National Semiconductor and Switchcore to be successful in this expanding market.
"We're very pleased to partner with a market leader such as National Semiconductor. This agreement will expand market opportunities for our combined product portfolios," said Nitish Amin, vice president of business development and sales at SwitchCore. "The designs using our devices will be simplified and the design time minimized. Therefore, in combination with attractive pricing, we can significantly reduce the costs for our customers."
This complementary partnership will facilitate the solutions for next generation networking equipment through the collaboration of the breakthrough technologies both companies champion. National Semiconductor is world-renowned for its field proven networking portfolio, including its low-cost, low-power and high-performance Gigabit Physical Layer and Gigabit MAC technologies.
Pricing and Availability
Exceeding the market expectation, the complete switch plus physical layer silicon pricing is forecasted at $35/port for 10k volumes. National Semiconductor's DP83861 GigPHYTER is in production (networks.national.com) and the SwitchCore's CXE-2000 is sampling now.
About National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor is the premier analog company driving the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of-the-art digital technology, the company is focused on the fast growing markets for wireless handsets; information appliances; information infrastructure; and display, imaging and human interface technologies. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National reported sales of $2.1 billion for its last fiscal year and has about 10,500 employees worldwide. Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.national.com.
About SwitchCore
SwitchCore AB (publ) was founded in 1997 around a three-year microelectronic research project at the Universities of Lund and Link?ping. The company today designs, develops, and markets integrated silicon devices for selling to network equipment manufacturers and suppliers, worldwide. SwitchCore's in-house developed CXE technology significantly increases the capacity of switchers and routers. The first product family was launched on the market in April 2000. The flagship product, the CXE-16 an integrated switching device, can switch up to 24 million packets per second. The SwitchCore Group has offices in Sweden in Lund, Stockholm and Gothenburg, and in the US in San Jose, CA and Boston, MA and in Singapore. The headcount is around 90. The company is quoted on the OM Stockholm Ex-change's Attract 40-list under the SCOR ticker Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.switchcore.com.
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