IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it is offering its BroadVoice® family of voice codecs royalty-free and without any licensing fees. As a direct response to customer demand for advanced, high-quality voice solutions and development tools, Broadcom is releasing its wideband and narrowband BroadVoice codecs in both floating-point and fixed-point C code as open source software under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

By eliminating the royalties and licensing fees (required by competitive solutions), Broadcom is driving a cost effective transition to HD voice-over IP (VoIP) applications by enhancing the quality of voice transmissions enabling a higher quality audio experience. The availability of BroadVoice source code, under an open source software license, provides the industry with maximum flexibility in how it can be deployed and has the potential of addressing a wide range of next generation voice-related applications.

Highlights/Key Facts:

• Broadcom developed the BroadVoice family of voice codecs with two variants including a 32 kb/s version called BroadVoice32 for wideband (HD) speech sampled at 16 kHz, and a 16 kb/s version called BroadVoice16 for narrowband telephone-bandwidth speech sampled at 8 kHz.
• BroadVoice advanced voice codecs reduce the latency, complexity and bandwidth usage on a wide range of wideband and narrowband voice applications including voice-over-cable, voice-over-DSL, Ethernet IP phones, Wi-Fi® VoIP phones and software-based VoIP client solutions. Additionally, for VoIP applications, distortion and echo are also reduced.
• BroadVoice is available on Broadcom’s cable, DSL and VoIP system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions enabling manufacturers and service providers to improve the customer’s audio experience.
• When standardized by SCTE and ANSI, the BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32 codecs are called BV16 and BV32, respectively. BV16 is a standard codec in PacketCable(TM) 1.5, PacketCable 2.0, ANSI/SCTE 24-21 2006, and ITU-T Recommendation J.161 specifications. BV32 is a standard codec in PacketCable 2.0, ANSI/SCTE 24-23 2007, and ITU-T Recommendation J.361 specifications.
• The real-time transport protocol (RTP) payload formats for BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32 are specified in RFC4298.
• BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32 have very similar codec structures. Both variants share most of the algorithm modules so when implemented together, substantial code sharing and memory reduction can be achieved.
• Broadcom is providing both the floating-point and fixed-point C source code of BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice 32 under an open source license (LGPL version 2.1) and on a royalty-free basis.
• For more technical information on BroadVoice codecs, or to download the BroadVoice open source C code, please visit: http://www.broadcom.com/broadvoice.
  

Supporting Quotes:

Norm Bogen, VP Research, Digital Entertainment, In-Stat

"Widespread deployment of HD VoIP is being inhibited by high cost. Broadband operators are looking for cost-effective ways to upgrade infrastructure and customer premises equipment to support enhanced voice services. By eliminating cost as a major constraint, the adoption of HD voice services should grow significantly, enabling service providers to significantly enhance the audio experience for their subscribers."

Dan Marotta, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Broadcom’s Broadband Communications Group

"We are seeing an increase in the number of requests for HD voice support from service providers who want to differentiate their telephony services from their competition. By offering high performance and highly efficient BroadVoice voice codecs royalty-free, we are enabling manufacturers and service providers to transition to HD VoIP as a means to significantly improve their customers’ audio experience."

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About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry’s broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.

Broadcom is one of the world’s largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2008 revenue of $4.66 billion, and holds over 3,650 U.S. and over 1,450 foreign patents, more than 7,750 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.

A FORTUNE 500® company, Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com.

Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:

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. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the demand for high definition VoIP applications, our position in that market, and the use of Broadcom BroadVoice wideband and narrowband voice codecs. 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 the BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32 voice codecs include, but are not limited to:

• intellectual property disputes, customer indemnification claims, and other types of litigation risk;
• potentially longer than expected time to see significant growth of HD voice services;
• potential reduction of the expected enhancement of audio experience caused by other system impairments unrelated to voice codec.
  

Additional factors that may cause Broadcom’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the list that can be found at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q42009.php.

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, except as required by law.

Broadcom, the pulse logo, Connecting everything, the Connecting everything logo and BroadVoice® 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.

    Contacts

    Broadcom Trade Press Contact       Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
    Dana Brzozkiewicz                  T. Peter Andrew
    Senior Communications Specialist   Vice President, Corporate
                                        Communications
    949-926-6367                       949-926-5663
    danabrz@broadcom.com               andrewtp@broadcom.com

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Broadband