Infineon Chipset Named "Product of the Year" - Innovative Technology Uses Copper Wires as Foundation for High Speed Data Highway

Munich, March 6, 2002 – Delivering the benefits of high-speed Ethernet networking to homes and businesses typically requires costly dedicated wiring. But a specialized chipset from Infineon Technologies offers a solution to the problem. The technology, which upgrades existing copper phone into a high speed data highway running at data rates ranging from 20 to 100 times faster than dial-up connections, was chosen as “Product of the Year” for 2001 by the readers of Germany’s Elektronik magazine.

By using the Infineon chipset in new equipment from major networking and telecommunication companies, hotels can offer high-speed Internet access and entertainment services in every room, universities can provide information and online seminars for students throughout the campus, businesses can support multiple phone lines and data service connections, and households can use the advantages of networking for exciting computer game duels.

Small chips, big effect

The chips combine the infrastructures of common telephone lines and advanced networks. Wherever network services are fed into the existing telephone network, it is possible to equip switching equipment or DSL adapters with the Infineon chips. This eliminates the need for additional wiring next to the terminal devices in order to provide the capability to access broadband Internet content such as video-on-demand or video conferencing. Data is transmitted with a transfer rate of 25 Mbit/sec over distances up to about 1,200 meters (about 3,900 ft.). This also makes the technology suitable for extensions of common 10-Mbit Local Area Networks (LAN), providing fast and cost-effective standard “Ethernet” connectivity between geographically dispersed office or university buildings.

The devices provide the ultimate combination of the best of two communication worlds: While Ethernet technology is the most widely used networking standard, the existing copper telephone wire is used for continuous and safe VDSL data transmission. The direct combination of these two standards has no adverse effect on other copper wire applications such as ISDN, ADSL or analog telephone services that are provided over the same cables.

This Elektronik recognition is one of a series of awards received by Infineon in recent months. In January 2002, Infineon received the innovation award of the German economy for outstanding semiconductor developments. Also, in October 2001, the company’s new secure 32-bit microcontroller was recognized by the smart card industry as the Best Technological Innovation of 2001.

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.