Centillium's Next Generation Gigabit EPON Chipset Unleashes Triple Play Capabilities Into the Home

16 February 2007

Centillium Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTLM), a leading provider of broadband access solutions, today announced the release of its innovative next generation Mustang(TM) 300 system-on-chip (SoC), expanding the company's end-to-end fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) semiconductor portfolio. This highly-integrated and low power FTTH solution is ideal for service providers deploying Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON) in customer premise equipment (CPE), enabling the delivery of premium Triple Play services such as bandwidth-intensive IPTV.

According to Steve Rago of iSuppli, fiber will start to make its presence felt starting this year, with FTTH becoming a major broadband deployment initiative globally as consumers demand new capabilities for television entertainment, including interactivity, integration with voice and data communications, personalization and value-added services. Steve continues that in response to this burgeoning demand for bandwidth, it is expected that service providers will ramp up their deployments of PON in 2007, driving a dramatic increase in demand for optical networking equipment and FTTH solutions. iSuppli forecasts that by 2010, the total number of FTTX PON subscribers worldwide will grow to more than 29 million.

"OFN collaborates with Centillium in the development of its Mustang 300 system-on-chip because it enables the delivery of Triple Play services by harnessing the power of EPON technology at the highest quality of service," said Takao Tashiro, Director of Technology Planning at OFN. "Mustang 300 delivers the flexibility we need, coupled with a robust feature set on a single chip that leads to lower cost, greater performance and a quicker time to market."

Raising the bar on performance, the Mustang chipset supports traffic management, classification and filtering for up to 256 multicast groups, and up to eight different service types, the highest in the industry. Mustang 300 has achieved the highest level of integration available by integrating all packet buffer and program memories in a compact package, reducing the ONU bill of materials (BOM) to just five components: optical transceiver, Gigabit PHY, FLASH, power supply, and Mustang 300.

"The next generation Mustang, combined with Centillium's Colt(TM) Optical Line Terminal (OLT) SoC and Zeus 2 burst-mode transceiver strengthen the company's market position as the only silicon vendor with complete, end-to-end EPON solutions for the 'last mile'", says Didier Boivin, vice president of marketing for Centillium. "Furthermore, by integrating these optical SoCs with the award-winning Arion(TM) VDSL2 and Atlanta(TM) VoIP technologies, our solutions help system vendors and service providers reduce costs and operational complexities and achieve rapid time to value."

The Mustang 300 simplifies service provider deployments by being fully interoperable with a variety of vendor solutions and supporting a full range of protocols and relevant standards including IEEE 802.3ah to ensure error- free, low latency, bandwidth efficient data transmissions over EPON networks. Furthermore, the chipset is accompanied with a robust software package and API that can be used 'right out of the box' to build a full-fledged ONU. This alleviates the need for systems vendors to develop customized software, leading to significantly lower development cost and an accelerated time to market.

The Mustang 300 is available now.

About Centillium Communications

Centillium Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTLM) is a leading innovator of high performance, cost-effective semiconductor solutions that give consumers, enterprises and service providers the winning edge in broadband access. The company's complete, end-to-end SoC solutions accelerate development time-to- market for "last mile" products with Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber-to- the-Premises (FTTP) and VoIP technologies. Centillium products include digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits and related software for DSL and FTTP central office and customer premises equipment and VoIP solutions for carrier- and enterprise-class gateways and consumer telephony. Centillium is a global company with headquarters in Fremont, CA. Additional information is available at http://www.centillium.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release includes statements that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws. For example, this press release speaks to the growth of FTTX PON subscribers, the technical features of Centillium's Mustang 300 product, the reduction in costs and operational complexities and the achievement of rapid time to market, and lower development costs. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, whether this selection results in increased sales; technical risk; and other risks detailed in Centillium's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 as filed with the SEC and in other reports filed with the SEC by Centillium from time to time. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and Centillium disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

NOTE: Centillium Communications, Centillium's logo, Mustang, Colt, Zeus 2, ARION and Atlanta are all trademarks of Centillium Communications, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other products or service names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Source: prnewswire