Telecommunications Magazine Identifies DSL Chip Set Supplier as a Company to Watch in the Fast-Growth DSL Market

CONTACT:
Al Gharakhanian, Marketing Director
The Market Relations Group, 
 A Regis McKenna Company
[email protected]
(650) 354-4455
Ben Phillipps
Centillium Technology Corporation
[email protected]
(510) 360-5054 

FREMONT, Calif. -- June 29, 1998 -- Centillium Technology, a leading innovator in the market for digital subscriber line (DSL) chip sets, has been selected by Telecommunications magazine as one of ten start-up companies to watch in the telecommunications industry. "Ten Telecom Start-Ups To Watch," the cover story in the magazine's July 1998 issue, spotlights companies that are favored by investors and venture capitalists and whose strong product offerings are expected to have significant impact in a fast-growth marketplace.

Centillium has developed a DSL chip set customized for telecommunications companies offering business and residential customers high-speed data communications services (including fast, affordable Internet access) over traditional copper telephone lines. Driven by strong end-user demand for Internet bandwidth and speed, the market for DSL equipment is expected to grow to $2.5 billion by the year 2000, according to Dataquest.

Selecting the Start-Ups to Watch
Telecommunications' Editor-in chief Tom Valovic led the research effort to identify the companies named in the article.

"In narrowing down our list, we conducted extensive research to evaluate a number of key factors," said Valovic. "Those factors included the long-term market impact the company is expected to have, the value proposition unique to each company, and the strength of the management team, among other key success factors."

Proven Management, Unique Product
Centillium was founded in April 1997 by Kamran Elahian, a well-known figure in Silicon Valley and the co-founder previously of two highly successful semiconductor firms, Cirrus Logic and NeoMagic. Last month, Centillium announced the hiring of A. Travis White as president and CEO. White was previously president of Sony Semiconductor of America and, before that, served as chairman, CEO and president of LSI Logic Corporation of Canada.

Under the leadership of White and Elahian, Centillium plans to ship by the end of 1998 a family of leading-edge DSL chip set solutions that are fully compliant with standards currently being defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) G.lite subcommittee, which is expected to serve as a catalyst in driving DSL services to the mass market in early 1999.

Unlike other vendors of DSL chip sets, Centillium is uniquely focused on developing, under one roof, an end-to-end solution that is 100-percent optimized for DSL, including a DSL-specific digital signal processor (DSP) customized to meet the needs of telcos and central office (CO) equipment makers.

"At the core of Centillium's offering is a DSP built specifically for DSL," says president and CEO White. "Other DSL chip set vendors are essentially recycling their general-purpose DSPs for the DSL market. By contrast, Centillium's strategy is based on a commitment to developing, from the ground-up, an end-to-end DSL-specific chip set. That is the key behind our differentiated offering and it's one of the primary reasons we are viewed as a leading-edge player in the DSL chip set space."

About Centillium Centillium has raised over $20 million from several leading investment firms, including U.S. Venture Partners, Walden International Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Korea Technology Banking, and VentureStar, as well corporate investors that include Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric, Sumitomo Electric, GVC, Askey Computer, and ZyXEL Communications.

Founded in April 1997, Centillium Technology is a fabless semiconductor company developing ITU-compliant Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) solutions for manufacturers of telecommunications equipment.