Avnet Cilicon Signs Distribution Agreement With IP Semiconductors; Avnet Design Services to Provide Technical Support and FPGA Design Services

Business Wire, April 24, 2002

Business & Technology Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif. & PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2002

Avnet Cilicon, the semiconductor products sales and marketing division of Avnet Electronics Marketing; Avnet Design Services (ADS), the technical arm of Avnet Electronics Marketing; and IP Semiconductors, the leader in low-power, high performance Network Processor solutions, announce an agreement by which Avnet Design Services will provide technical support and Avnet Cilicon will provide distribution services for IP Semiconductors products.

The products covered in the agreement include the SPEEDRouter(TM) and SPEEDAnalyzer(TM) families as well as the associated development systems and Intellectual Property (IP) cores for Xilinx FPGAs.

The SPEEDAnalyzer(TM) and the SPEEDRouter(TM) are programmable integrated packet processing solutions for high performance routers and switches. The SPEEDAnalyzer is a fast, programmable and low-power VLIW microprocessor for packet classification and address analysis. The SPEEDRouter is an FPGA Network Processor for 2.5 Gb/s full-duplex packet processing solutions and is implemented as an Intellectual Property core in Xilinx Virtex-II and Virtex-II PRO FPGA families. The IP Semiconductors solution is supported with a complete user development system to speed the development of router and switch hardware, firmware and software. The development environment comes complete with example code for implementation of standard protocols and quality of service algorithms. Users can quickly and easily create code to support their particular application.

"Avnet Design Services is excited to have IP Semiconductors as a supplier partner. Designers of high speed networking routers can use IP Semiconductors products to construct flexible solutions for high speed Internet Protocol routing and management. The combination of user programmability and easy Xilinx FPGA customization of the IP Semiconductors solution allows designers to add unique features, without impacting their time-to-market," said Warren Miller, vice president of marketing for Avnet Design Services. "For example, the IP Semiconductors' SPEEDRouter Intellectual property (IP) core can be used inside a Xilinx FPGA to create a data-path for processing IP packets on Layer 2-7 at line speeds. Designers can use this IP Core in conjunction with the IP Semiconductors' SPEEDAnalyzer network processor and mix and match it with other IP Cores to create a differentiated solution very quickly."

"Avnet Design Services is a great distribution partner for us and will expand our reach to a much broader customer base, in particular to start-ups and other smaller to midsize companies that will drive major growth in the market," said Thomas Jorgensen, vice president of sales for IP Semiconductors. "Avnet Design Services' field applications engineers have the depth of technical knowledge that our customers will require when evaluating various system architectures and device trade-offs. Avnet Design Services also offers FPGA design services for customers who need help in integrating our Xilinx FPGA core with other system level functions."

Pricing and Availability

The SPEEDRouter FPGA Network Processor is provided as a customizable core for the Xilinx Virtex-E/II FPGA family. The SPEEDRouter uses the SPEEDAnalyzer lookup and classification ASSP from IPS to provide a fully customizable packet classification and billing platform for OEMs.

The SPEEDRouter 2.5G FPGA Network Processor core is shipping now. The SPEEDRouter 10G will be available early in calendar third quarter 2002. The SPEEDRouter FPGA Network Processor solution license is priced on a per-project basis. The SPEEDAnalyzer is available in engineering samples and will be available in volume in calendar third quarter 2002.

About Avnet Design Services

Avnet Design Services is the technical arm of Avnet Electronics Marketing, providing a variety of technical resources and capabilities to speed customers' design cycles and to get their products to market quicker. Field applications engineers (FAEs) are knowledgeable about a variety of potential applications solutions for customers' design problems and can guide engineers to the solution that is right for their particular applications. Fee-for-service engineering services, in FPGA, ASIC and System Design are offered to Avnet customers. For more information, visit the Avnet Design Services Web site at http://www.ads.avnet.com.

About Avnet Electronics Marketing

Avnet Electronics Marketing (EM) is the largest operating group of Phoenix, Ariz.-based Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a Fortune 500 company with fiscal 2001 sales of $12.8 billion (year ended June 30, 2001). One of the world's largest distributors of semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical components from leading manufacturers, Avnet EM markets, inventories and adds value to these products and provides world-class supply-chain management and engineering design services. Avnet EM serves customers in 63 countries. The company's Web site is located at http://www.avnet.com.