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Marvell Launches Third Generation Horizon™ Family Communication Controller, Further Extending its Leadership in Gigabit Ethernet Space

Next-generation Horizon Family Based on Marvell NetGX™ Co-processor Technology, Sets a New Benchmark for Performance, Scalability and Integration for MIPS and PowerPC CPU-Based Systems

Sunnyvale, California (August 4, 2003) –

Marvell®   (NASDAQ: MRVL), a technology leader in the development of extreme broadband communications and storage solutions, today announced the third generation of the Horizon™ family, the industry’s most powerful WAN to Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) LAN communication controller.  Built upon two generations of industry leading Horizon technology, the third generation provides a new level of intelligence by incorporating high-level enterprise networking features such as network security and Quality of Service (QoS).   The Horizon III family is targeted at leading OEMs, migrating from Fast Ethernet to GbE, enabling them to build feature-rich, highly integrated and cost optimized routers.

The rapid transition from Fast Ethernet to GbE in the converged networking applications market, such as edge routers, media gateways and Voice over IP equipment has accelerated the need for scalable and cost effective communication controllers.  To meet this demand, Horizon III family of products integrate on a single chip, varied high performance CPU interfaces supporting MIPS®  and PowerPC®  architectures, allowing OEMs to scale their systems by choosing the CPU that best fits their performance and cost requirements.  In addition, Marvell offers a complete evaluation and development platform including schematics and documentation, enabling customers to start system development at an early stage, reducing the overall system cost and shortening product development cycles.

A key element of the Horizon III family of products is the inclusion of Marvell NetGX™ co-processor technology, tailored to enhance data path processing such as full IP security encryption and authentication protocols as well as flow classification and ATM features.  The advanced features will enable the introduction of highly secured, feature-rich enterprise products with minimal effort.  In addition, Marvell offers an extensive set of production ready software packages as well as a complete SDK tool chain providing leading OEMs with the flexibility to develop their own application specific software, enabling fastest time to market. 

"Marvell was the first to support telecom-quality communications to enterprise customers connecting to the Internet with our Horizon family of controllers, “said Alon Hurwitz, Director of Product Marketing for the Communications and System Controllers.   "We have been continuously working with our customers to ensure our third generation of Horizon controllers will meet their anticipated needs and together with IBM and PMC-Sierra would address the increasing demand for scalable and integrated solutions.”

“IBM PowerPC™ embedded microprocessors offer superior performance, scalability, integration, and power efficiency for demanding applications," said Lisa Su, Director of PowerPC and Emerging Products, IBM Microelectronics.  "IBM's PowerPC 750FX and 750GX processors, combined with Marvell's new Horizon communications controller, can offer embedded system designers a high-performance solution for demanding next-generation applications."

“Today’s communications applications must deliver high-bandwidth architectures which require both high-speed networking interfaces and a high-performance processor subsystem,” said John Monson, Vice President of Marketing for PMC-Sierra’s Microprocessor Products Division.   “The PMC-Sierra RM5200™, RM7000™ and RM9000™ families combined with the Marvell Horizon companion controller family, deliver the ideal solution to address the scalability and expanding performance requirements of today’s networking marketplace.”

Marvell Across the Networking

With the introduction of the Horizon-III communication controllers, Marvell now is the leading vendor in the marketplace that offers OEMs the ability to develop a complete set of enterprise gigabit internetworking solutions. Using the Marvell’s high performance, cost effective, desktop/server NIC (Yukon™), highly integrated layer-3 Gigabit Ethernet switch (Prestera™) and the Horizon-III controllers for LAN to WAN connectivity, customers are able to develop an end to end enterprise platform, entirely based on Marvell products.

Horizon III Family of Products

The Marvell Horizon III family consists of two products: the Horizon-MV96340 supporting 64 Bit MIPS microprocessors and the Horizon-MV96360 supporting 64-bit PowerPC microprocessors.  The Horizon-III communication controllers incorporate on a single chip, a high performance CPU interface, supporting MIPS and PowerPC architectures, DDR SDRAM memory controller, dual 32-bit/64-bit PCI/PCI-x bridges, two 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and a set of eight, high-speed, multi-protocol serial interfaces, supporting the most common WAN protocols and NetGX co-processors. 

About Marvell

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is the leading global semiconductor provider of complete broadband communications and storage solutions.  The Company’s diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure, including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking.  As used in this release, the terms “Company” and “Marvell” refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries, including Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. (MSI), Marvell Asia Pte Ltd. (MAPL), Marvell Japan K.K., Marvell Taiwan Ltd., Marvell International Ltd. (MIL), Marvell U.K. Limited, Marvell Semiconductor Israel Ltd. (MSIL), RADLAN Computer Communications Ltd. and SysKonnect GmbH.  MSI is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and designs, develops and markets products on behalf of MIL and MAPL.  MSI may be contacted at (408) 222-2500 or at www.marvell.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This release contains forward-looking statements based on projections and assumptions about our products and our markets.  Words such as “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “may,” “will,” “should,” and their variations identify forward-looking statements.  Statements that refer to, or are based on projections, uncertain events or assumptions also identify forward-looking statements.  All such statements are not guarantees of results and are subject to risks and uncertainties.  Some risks and uncertainties that may adversely impact the statements in this release include, but are not limited to, the timing, cost and successful completion of development and volume production, end-customer qualification and adoption, and the timing, pricing, rescheduling, or cancellation of orders.  For other factors that could cause Marvell’s results to vary from expectations, please see the sections titled “Additional Factors That May Affect Future Results” in Marvell’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 1, 2003 and Marvell’s subsequent reports on Form 10-Q.  We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements.

Marvell® , the Marvell logo, Horizon™, Discovery™, Yukon™, Prestera™, and NetGX™ are trademarks of Marvell.  PowerPC™ is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.