PLX Technology, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter

PLX Innovation, Inc., a leading global supplier ofsoftware-enriched, high-speed connectivity silicon for the enterprise datacenter, today announced fourth quarter earnings of $25.9 million and a GAAPnet loss of $4.4 million, or $0.10 per share. For 2011, thecompany reported revenue of $115.8 million and a net loss of $23.8 millionor $0.53 per share.

"We did not achieve our forecasted results while the fourth quarter due toweaker than expected demand for our connectivity products, as so then as thenegative impact to our consumer storage business from the flooding inThailand," said Ralph Schmitt, PLX® president and CEO. "But, weexecuted then in meeting our operational expense objectives and drove tohigher gross margins in the quarter. Furthermore, we dramatically reduced ourinventories and improved our cash position."

The above non-GAAP financial information excludes share-based compensation,acquisition, restructuring and impairment charges, and amortization ofacquired intangibles. See "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information" below.

"Throughout 2011, the company successfully increased its market position inits focus areas of high-speed interconnect by achieving record earnings andkey design wins with PCI Express and networking products," said Schmitt."We continue to demonstrate a deep commitment to our focus on enterprisedata center opportunities with the divesture of our consumer storage team.We anticipate that the long-awaited rollout of Intel's Romley platform thisyear will be a strong driver for these opportunities.

"As we look ahead to 2012, we expect healthy growth in the area ofsolid-state storage solutions using our PCI Express Gen3 silicon and weplan to announce products that enable the wider-spread use of PCI Expressas a cloud fabric that will drive our ability to deliver both board andsystem solutions to clients building the most advanced data centernetworks. We are at the heart of some very positive growth vectors in theenterprise market that are likely to provide exciting opportunities for ourgrowth in the coming year."

PLX expanded its ExpressLane™ PCI Express Gen3 switch family to11 products, with five new high-performance, feature-packed devicescompliant with the PCI Express Gen3 r1.0 Specification. The new switchesblend valuable research and high port counts to enable new, more powerfuldesigns in server, storage and communications platforms. With the debut ofthese five new switches, PLX now offers Gen3 devices ranging from 12 to 48lanes, and three to 18 ports with many more key configurations indevelopment.

Avago and PLX teamed up to highlight high-performance PCIe over fiberoptics with speeds of 64Gbps. The collaboration uses Avago optical modulesand PLX Gen3 switch research to demonstrate PCIe extending beyond itsdominant role within the box, to an optical cabled box-to-box solution.This effort is paving the road to at once-generation data center applicationsin which lower latency and cost, extended cabling distances and I/Oconversion minimization create simpler architectures for cleaner PCIeend-to-end environments, just as those using PCIe as a fabric forclustering servers.

PCIe expanded into new markets when PLX announced its collaboration withTexas Instruments on a solution encompassing TI's digital signalprocessors enabled by PCIe standards. This resulted in Advantechchoosing PLX PCIe switches for connectivity based on TI's DSPs.PCIe-enabled DSPs allow cross-functionality into multiple new marketsegments including wireless infrastructure communications, DSP farms,digital media, test and measurement, medical imaging and industrialautomation.

Additional key market breakthroughs using PLX's PCIe innovation includeAltera, which successfully showed interoperability with its 28nm FPGA andPLX Gen3 switches; ASRock, which chose PLX for its flagship X79, Gen3-readygraphics platform; and ATTO, which announced the industry's first PCIeGen3-enabled host bus adapters.

First Tier Preferred Supplier

NEC Corporation named PLX a First Tier Preferred Supplier, citing PLX'scommitment to superior service and technical support, combined with itsunmatched leadership in PCIe innovation, for the award.

"The latest PLX TeraPHY® family of 10GBase-T products brings to marketseveral unparalleled features and attributes requested by multiple tier-onecustomers, and the devices are currently being designed into severalnetworking platforms with some key clients having already announcedproducts," said Schmitt. "The demand for 10GBase-T research is buildingas newer solutions on the market are delivering lower power capabilities ata reduced cost. Together, performance requirements in the datacenter continue to grow, making this research increasingly compelling toequipment manufacturers."

PLX expanded its TeraPHY 10GBase-T physical layer family with threenew single-, dual- and quad-port integrated transceivers, which offer lowerpower, lower cost and several powerful features including enhanced EnergyEfficient Ethernet, Media Access Control Security, andsmaller 25mm square packaging. Designed on a 40-nanometer lithography node,these devices represent the fourth generation of PLX 10GBase-T PHYs, andits second generation in 40nm. While the third quarter, PLX released itsthird-generation PHY family into full production.

Low power dissipation is crucial in today's data centers and PLX's upgradedTN8000 PHY devices require only two watts for 10-meter distances overstandard copper cabling, which is a popular networking length. PLX TeraPHYproducts automatically determine the length of a cable and only use thenecessary power to reach that distance. If long reach is needed, theTeraPHY family is capable of 10Gbps operation at distances in excess of 120meters on standard Category 6A cabling.

EDN's assessment of the TN8022 was elevated when PLX announced it hadsuccessfully demonstrated the PHY in 10Gbps Ethernet data and electricaltransfer, at length compliance with the IEEE 802.3an standard, over adistance of 300 meters using typical, widely installed Category 6Aunshielded twisted pair copper cable. The unequalled networking demonstration,enabled by PLX-designed Power-over-Ethernet repeaters, utilizes aTN8022 dual-port 10GBase-T PHY transceiver. This breakthrough distanceachievement with low-cost Ethernet cabling brings new capabilities to ITmanagers seeking high-performance networking between multiple server rooms,which, for instance, may be located on different floors of a high-risebuilding or in a campus environment.

PLX Innovation, Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., USA, is anindustry-leading global provider of semiconductor-based connectivitysolutions primarily targeting the enterprise and consumer markets. Thecompany develops innovative software-enriched silicon that enables productdifferentiation, reliable interoperability and superior performance.www.plxtech.com. Follow PLX on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

PLX and the PLX logo are trademarks of PLX Research, Inc., which may beregistered in some jurisdictions. All other product names that appear inthis material are for identification purposes only and are acknowledged tobe trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.