Gennum Enables High-Speed Thunderbolt(TM) Copper Cables

New Signal Conditioner Chip Speeds Time to Market for Cable Manufacturers

BURLINGTON, ON, March 29 /PRNewswire/ - Gennum Corporation (TSX: GND), a leading supplier of optical, analog and mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for high-speed signal integrity applications, today announced the industry's first in-connector transceiver chip for Thunderbolt^TM active copper cables. Gennum's new GN2033, the world's first signal conditioner chip intended for the emerging technology, leverages a decade of signal integrity expertise to enable Thunderbolt^TM data and display across a copper cable at cutting edge speeds.

Recently announced by Intel, Thunderbolt^TM is a revolutionary new high-speed computer input/output (I/O) technology that offers a quantum leap in data transfer rates compared to other standards. Thunderbolt^TM utilizes dual bi-directional channels operating at 10Gb/s per port to concurrently support data and display over a single electrical cable. Copper cables enabled by Gennum's GN2033 promise to provide an immediate low cost path to bringing the amazing performance, simplicity and flexibility of Thunderbolt^TM technology to the consumer.

"We are excited to bring our expertise in the 10Gb/s datacom space to the new Thunderbolt^TM technology," said Gary Beauchamp, Senior Vice President, Mixed Signal and Optical Products at Gennum. "Our many years of experience with high-speed links, backed by our track record of having shipped more than 7 million 10Gb/s clock and data recovery ICs, has given us the unique capability to rise to the challenges of Thunderbolt^TM."

Unlike previous generations of PC cabling solutions, the unprecedented speed requirements of the Thunderbolt^TM technology place unique demands on the transmission media. Using Gennum's new GN2033 at each end of a Thunderbolt^TM cable allows reliable, error-free transmission of high-speed data over narrow-gauge copper cable.

GN2033 Availability
The GN2033 is sampling today. For more information about Gennum products, visit www.gennum.com or contact your local Gennum sales representative.

About Gennum
Gennum Corporation (TSX: GND) designs innovative semiconductor solutions and intellectual property (IP) cores to serve the rising global demand for high-speed data transmission products in the broadcast, networking, storage and telecommunications markets.  Gennum offers proven optical, analog and mixed-signal solutions with uncompromising signal integrity to support standards such as high-definition (HD) video, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand®, Ethernet, SONET and PCI Express®.  The company is headquartered in Burlington, Canada, and has global design, research and development and sales offices in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Germany, United States, India and the United Kingdom. www.gennum.com.

SOURCE Gennum Corporation