Centillium Communications, Inc.

Laurie Falconer
Centillium Communications, Inc.
(510) 771-3647
[email protected]

TACHION NETWORKS SELECTS CENTILLIUM COMMUNICATIONS' 336-CHANNEL VOICE OVER PACKET CHIP FOR ITS COLLAPSED CENTRAL OFFICE SWITCH

Centillium's Entropia Chip Delivers 336 Compressed Voice Channels Over ATM Networks With Industry's Lowest Power Consumption and Highest Level of Integration

FREMONT, Calif., October 30, 2000 - Centillium Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTLM), innovator of broadband communications technology, today announced that Tachion Networks, creators of the Collapsed Central Office, has selected Centillium's Entropiaú chip for the Fusion 5000ú broadband services switch family. The Entropia chip compresses and processes high-capacity voice services over packet-based networks, allowing service providers to merge voice and data traffic onto one network.

Tachion Networks is the first design win for Centillium's Entropia chip for voice-over-ATM (VoATM) with support for ATM Adaptation Layer Type 1 (AAL1). Centillium's ACE (Asynchronous Computing Engine) architecture in the Entropia Voice-Over-Packet product line is the basis for this revolutionary design. The Entropia chip is a complete system-on-a-chip solution that includes a communications Digital Signal Processor (DSP), software for voice processing, including compression, echo cancellation, and ATM adaptation layer processing, and host Application Programming Interface (API) software. Centillium previously announced availability of the Entropia chip that uses ATM Adaptation Layer Type 2 (AAL2) to support 256 voice channels.

The Fusion 5000 broadband services switch is the first system to truly enable packet switching, circuit switching, signaling, routing and transport in an economical, highly dense platform.

"We've chosen Centillium's voice-over-packet technology because it complements our fundamental strategy of integrating multiple traditional technologies into our Collapsed Central Office architecture," said Jeff Matros, president and CEO of Tachion Networks. "The Entropia chip is the most integrated, highest capacity and lowest power voice-over-packet solution we evaluated, and we believe it will deliver enormous economic benefits to our customers."

"Tachion's next-generation broadband services switch is truly changing the paradigm of central office infrastructures, enabling carriers to offer more services in more cities with less time and for less money," said Dr. Mohan Kinra, Director of Marketing for Voice-over-Packet products at Centillium Communications, Inc. "With VoATM based on the Entropia chip, Tachion's customers can now use the Fusion 5000 switch to deliver flexible, highly scalable voice services over data networks."

Entropia VoATM Chip Solution
The highly integrated Entropia chip combines hardware and software to deliver a complete high-density, low-power packet voice capability in a single small form-factor device. Entropia replaces the current practice of using general-purpose DSPs (capable of processing only 12 channels of voice) with a high-capacity system-on-a-chip solution that increases the voice processing by a factor of over 25. Entropia also offers very high levels of programmability for future upgrades as new voice coders and network protocols are developed and released.

About Tachion Networks
Based in West Long Branch, N.J., Tachion Networks builds next-generation networking infrastructure equipment enabling communications service providers to achieve higher profits while expanding geographic coverage and packet-based service portfolios. Founded in 1996 by veterans of Lucent/Bell Labs, Tachion unites top talent from industry leaders including Siemens, Cisco, AT&T; and Telcordia. Tachion's investors include some of the most prestigious investors and entrepreneurs in all of telecommunications: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Roy Wilkens (Williams Communications Board of Directors member), Clark McLeod (chairman and CEO of McLeod USA), Gabriel Communications, LightYear Communications, Walden International Investment Group and Morgenthaler Venture Partners. For more information, call Tachion Networks at (732) 542-7750 or visit the company web site at http://www.tachion.com.

About Centillium Communications
Centillium Communications, Inc. is combining technical innovation and customer commitment to make broadband communications a market reality. Centillium consistently delivers value to its customers by providing broadband networking systems for applications across all market segments. The company designs and markets communications chipset solutions for central office equipment, digital loop carrier (DLC) line cards, and customer premise equipment for Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Voice over Packet (VoP) and Premise Networking. The Centillium Communications headquarters are located at 47211 Lakeview Blvd., Fremont, CA 94538. Additional information is available at www.centillium.com.

Forward Looking Statements
Except for historical information contained in this press release, the foregoing contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements based on a variety of risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties relating to actual quantities and timing of any orders received under the contract and the successful development and market acceptance of Centillium's new products. The company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. Information about potential factors that could affect Centillium's financial results is included in Centillium's Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, available for viewing on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov.

Centillium Communications and the Centillium logo are trademarks of Centillium Communications.