ShareWave announces industry's first high-speed multimedia-capable home networking controllers
Products for broadband residential gateways and 11 Mbps (and above) wireless connectivity

EL DORADO HILLS, CA (December 14, 1999)-ShareWave, Inc., an ingredient technology supplier of high-performance, multimedia-capable home networking solutions, today announced key customer sampling of a new family of highly integrated home networking controllers. These controllers include Wireless Network Controllers, Wireless Mobile Controllers, Wireless Bridge Controllers, and Residential Gateway Controllers. Target applications for these controllers include broadband residential gateways, wireless bridges, and desktop and mobile computer wireless connectivity.

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"ShareWave's latest offering will enable us to ship a full range of high-performance, low cost wireless home networking products which are ideally suited to the market here in the US and worldwide," said Patrick Lo, Vice President and General Manager of NETGEAR.

ShareWave is focused on easily extending access to broadband platforms (such as xDSL modems, cable modems, and cable set-tops) beyond their initial termination point in the home, while also enabling the deployment of low-cost client applications. ShareWave's portfolio of products squarely addresses the performance, cost, standards interoperability (IEEE 802.11b and 802.11a), and deployment requirements for home networks built around residential broadband platforms.

"We are excited to base our wireless home networking product line on ShareWave' s high-performance set of products," said Akitoshi Aritaka, Director of Kyushu Matsushita Electric's Telecom Research Laboratory. "We look forward to excellent market receptivity to them." High-performance, multimedia in-home networks benefit service providers by reducing the cost and complexity of installing broadband customer premises equipment, enabling consumers to do the installation. A ShareWave solution provides the ideal infrastructure and performance for sharing broadband content and premium services.

"ShareWave is providing enabling technology for what we expect to be an explosive market over the next five years. Broadband providers are looking for ways to distribute high speed content, and ShareWave's controllers equip Residential Gateways as well as devices at the very end of the network to handle this multimedia rich environment," said Mike Wolf, Senior Analyst with Cahners In-Stat.

Today, ShareWave is introducing four broadband home networking controllers and providing engineering samples to key customers. Limited production units will be available in the First Quarter of next year, and volume production will begin in the Second Quarter of 2000.

"We are confident that our products' feature sets, including wireless multimedia capability, quality of service, and cost-effectiveness, deliver unique advantages to the broadband and in-home networking markets," said Bob Bennett, President and CEO of ShareWave.

About ShareWave's Home Networking Controllers 
All ShareWave controllers deliver high-performance and reliable wireless networking through high levels of integration, including a digital wireless radio MAC, an embedded ARM7TDMI processor, Forward Error Correction (FEC), and ShareWave's WhitecapTM network protocol. These network controllers interface gluelessly with commonly available IEEE 802.11b basebands and digital radio front ends. FEC is a requirement for reliable high-performance multimedia wireless home networking. The FEC algorithm is designed to provide robust link performance and high network throughput in typically noisy home environments. The Whitecap network protocol addresses the requirements for wireless distribution of high-speed data as well as multimedia content (audio, voice, and video), while addressing interoperability with the industry standard IEEE 802.11b and 802.11a. I. Extending Access to Broadband Platforms Wireless bridging and multi-LAN capability allow broadband content and services to be easily distributed to other devices within the home:

(a) Wireless Bridge Controllers ShareWave's SWB2510 Wireless Bridge Controller provides wireless connectivity to common wired home networking technologies, such as cable, xDSL, Ethernet, and phoneline (HPNA) networking. The SWB2510 delivers an optimal level of flexibility in cost, functionality and performance for point to multi-point home LAN bridging and routing products. It incorporates an Ethernet MAC and a high speed Network and Media Interface (NMI) for connectivity to other networking devices and codecs designed into the wireless bridge product. 

b) Residential Gateway Controllers ShareWave's SWG2710 is the industry's first broadband Residential Gateway (RG) Controller to deliver wired and wireless home networking capabilities. The SWG2710's integration of system services functions and multiple LAN interfaces provides an overall decrease in total system cost, board space and power consumption for residential gateway products.

Industry standard host and networking interfaces ensure a glue-less and cost-effective architecture that is interoperable with other home networking products and systems. The SWG2710 offers on-chip interfaces for USB, PCI, MII, 10/100BT Ethernet, HPNA, and high speed digital wireless radio (11 Mbps and beyond). It also features a high speed Network and Media Interface (NMI) -- a 32-bit general purpose parallel interface to connect to other networking devices and codecs designed into the RG. SWG2710 based solutions also provide the flexibility of multimedia content distribution through multiple LAN subnets within the home, such as wireless, phoneline, and Ethernet. SWG2710 can enable a wide range of product configurat ions for RGs - ranging from wireless Ethernet bridges to integrated platforms with WAN-to-Multi-LAN routing and other advanced features. II. Client/ Wireless LAN Connectivity Wireless Network and Mobile Controllers enable high-speed wireless LANs for multi-PC homes and clients for connecting to broadband wireless bridges and residential gateways:

(a) Wireless Network Controllers ShareWave's SWN2110 Wireless Network Controller's on-chip interfaces include USB, PCI, and high-speed digital wireless radio. Physical products enabled by the SWN2110 include low cost, small footprint, PCI adapters, USB modules, and embedded wireless client devices. SWN2110 enables wireless network interface connections (NICs) for PCs and other client devices in the home.

(b) Wireless Mobile Controllers ShareWave's SWN2120 Wireless Network Controller enables low cost, low profile, wireless network interface connections (NIC) for mobile devices, such as PCMCIA cards for PC notebooks, and embedded solutions for wireless mobile pads, etc. The SWN2120 delivers an optimal level of flexibility in performance, power management, and cost. It has two integrated DACs for power management of the radio and allows for transmit, receive and standby states.

About Whitecap Network Protocol 
A key element of ShareWave's technology portfolio is the Whitecap network protocol. It represents the "language" spoken by the high-performance, multimedia broadband in-home network. Whitecap's key features include dynamic TDMA, quality of service (QoS), and selectable error correction (FEC). Whitecap efficiently manages a network of heterogeneous devices and digital content: cable and xDSL modems, residential gateways, PC's, TV's, mobile pads, set-top boxes, digital audio and video jukeboxes, and other information appliances and servers. Whitecap can enable networks to handle bursty data communication among PC's and PC-like devices while simultaneously streaming full motion video to TV's and other entertainment devices and packet-based voice to Internet cordless phones. Existing wireless industry standards do not address the requirements for multimedia distribution within the home. ShareWave is developing Whitecap to be compatible and fully interoperable with the IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b high speed wireless industry standards. Whitecap adds QoS and multimedia capability to these standards to ensure they consistently deliver the most compelling consumer benefits of home networking. ShareWave is a member of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), which was formed to certify the interoperability of members' IEEE 802.11b (11 Mbps) products.

About ShareWave, Inc. 
Founded in September 1996, ShareWave's vision is to establish a high performanc e, multimedia-capable broadband digital wireless network in the home that provides consumers with unrestricted access to the digital content they want, where and when they want it. ShareWave provides highly integrated semiconductors and networking software for high-performance, multimedia, broadband gateways and wireless in-home networks. ShareWave's core product lines include Wireless Network Controllers, Wireless Bridge Controllers, Residential Gateway Controllers, and associated networking services and protocols. ShareWave sells these products to leaders of the broadband, consumer electronics, computing, and networking industries. ShareWave is privately held with its headquarters in El Dorado Hills, CA. ShareWave has received funding from Ameritech Corporation, APV Technology Partners, Cisco Systems, Draper Richards, L.P., Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Philips Electronics NV, SOFTBANK Technology Ventures, Vulcan Ventures, Inc., and other public and private investors. ShareWave has announced customer partnership agreements with Cisco, Kyushu Matsushita Electric (for products bearing the Panasonic brand name), and NETGEAR (a wholly owned subsidiary of Nortel Networks). For more information on ShareWave and our products, visit the company's web site at http://www.sharewave.com/.