Infineon and Metalink establish Joint Interoperability Demonstrations for their Standards-Based QAM Very High-Bit-Rate DSL Chipsets

Mar 6, 2002 | Market News

Munich, Germany, March 6, 2002 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX), a leading provider of integrated circuits for advanced communications systems, and Metalink Ltd. (NASDAQ: MTLK), a leader in providing high-performance broadband access chip sets, today announced that interoperability demonstrations of their respective standards-based, 4-band Very-high-speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) chipsets will be held at SuperComm 2002, June 3-5, Atlanta GA.

The two companies will open their interoperability program to any vendor endorsing QAM-based VDSL technology to help achieve the goal of creating standards-based, multi-vendor VDSL solutions employing the broadly deployed, proven Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) line code.

VDSL technology allows telecom operators to effectively compete with cable operators by offering bundled high-quality on-demand and broadcast video, high-speed interactive data and voice services. In addition, new business services such as Ethernet and Fast Ethernet over existing copper infrastructure can be offered using this technology. QAM technology enables vendors to reduce total cost by bringing down the overall bill of material, reducing system footprint and lowering design complexity at both ends of the network. The technology supports scalable bit rates from 1 to 40 Mbps, which is more than 5 times greater than legacy ADSL technology at comparable cost.

“The accelerated drive towards interoperability further demonstrates the market demand for VDSL,” said Christian Wolff, vice president of Infineon’s Communications Business Group and General Manager of the Access Business Unit. “This joint initiative by Infineon and Metalink will ensure near-future, multi-vendor availability of standard ATM and Ethernet over VDSL. Metalink and Infineon will continue to cooperate in achieving interoperability on emerging standards contributing to widespread adoption of VDSL as the technology of choice for broadband over copper in the local loop.”

“This joint interoperability initiative demonstrates both companies’ continued commitment to power telecommunication operators with a superior value proposition”, said Tzvi Shukhman, Chairman and CEO for Metalink. “VDSL QAM technology outperforms all other DSL technologies - it enables operators to effectively provide a range of broadband business and residential services - exceeding offerings by alternative carriers. Interoperable VDSL QAM solutions by leaders such as Infineon and Metalink will further support profitable mass deployment of true Broadband services.”

Due to the high bandwidth and flexible bandwidth partitioning, VDSL technology is used to carry multiple business and residential services within ATM and Ethernet networks. Standardization and adaptation of VDSL technology to these protocols is carried at IEEE (IEEE802.3ah), ITU-T, ETSI, ANSI and FSAN (fs-VDSL).

Physical level of interoperability framework and specification between the VDSL QAM devices has been recently consented within the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), and the FSAN FS-VDSL specification workgroup.

Don Clarke, FS-VDSL Technical Director and Head of VDSL Technology at BTexact Technologies said: "The success of VDSL is dependent on achieving early interoperability between competing vendors. Interoperability has therefore been a strong focus for the FS-VDSL Committee. I am very pleased to see Metalink and Infineon adopting the FS-VDSL Interoperability Test Specification and working together to accelerate interoperability for their VDSL products - this can only be good news for the industry.”

Metalink and Infineon have separately developed and demonstrated working QAM line code-based ATM and Ethernet over VDSL solutions. As the standards have become more definitive in nature Metalink and Infineon have been able to advance their designs to where interoperability was possible while maintaining standards conformance.

About Metalink


Metalink, a fabless semiconductor company, develops and markets high performance broadband access chip sets used by telecommunications and networking equipment makers. Metalink's broadband silicon solutions enable cost effective, very high speed streaming video, voice and data transmission and delivery throughout worldwide communication networks. The Company's top-level algorithmic designers, along with its leadership in standards bodies worldwide, are establishing Metalink as a leader in the field of broadband access. Metalink continues to implement its strategic growth plan of focusing on high growth video deployment and voice over Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) applications and capitalizing on its industry leading SHDSL and VDSL technologies.

Metalink's headquarters are located at Yakum Business Park, Yakum, 60972 Israel, Tel: 972-9-9605555, Fax: 972-9-9605544. Metalink's U.S. Subsidiary is located at 105 Lake Forest Way, Folsom, CA 95630 Tel: 916/355-1580, Fax: 916/355-1585. For more information please visit Metalink's Web site at www.metalinkDSL.com, or contact:

Lorraine Little-Bigelow
Marketing Communications
Tel: 916-353-2393
lorraine@metalinkdsl.com

Carl Hymans
Investor Relations, GS Schwartz & Co., Inc.
Tel: 212-725-4500
carlh@schwartz.com

About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2001 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 5.67 billion with about 33,800 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Any statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ from the forward-looking statements. Infineon Technologies undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Information Number

INFCOM200203.056e