Metalink Announces Industry's First Single-Chip Real-MIMO, 802.11n Draft-Compliant, Radio Frequency (RF) IC

Metalink Announces Industry's First Single-Chip Real-MIMO, 802.11n Draft-Compliant, Radio Frequency (RF) IC

MtW8150 is First in 802.11n Product Family Laying the Groundwork for New Wireless Multimedia Networking for Home Entertainment Applications

YAKUM, Israel, May 23/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Metalink Ltd. (NASDAQ: MTLK), a provider of high performance wireline and wireless broadband communication silicon solutions, today entered the wireless LAN (WLAN) market with the first in a planned family of products, WLANPlus(TM), that will enable IEEE 802.11n networks to deliver the necessary performance and coverage to handle high-bandwidth digital entertainment content. The company's initial product for this emerging WLAN market segment is the world's first single-chip radio frequency (RF) device to support Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technology used in the IEEE 802.11n standard being developed for next-generation Wi-Fi(R).

"Metalink's goal is to help move IEEE 802.11n beyond fast data networking to fulfill its promise as a video and multimedia delivery technology for wireless home entertainment," said Tzvika Shukhman, chairman and chief executive officer with Metalink. "In addition to offering our new, highly integrated RF device as a stand-alone product for use with other MIMO or smart-antenna baseband chips, we also will be including it as part of a complete IEEE 802.11n MIMO chipset that we plan to unveil soon. We are confident that our WLANPlus product line is a crucial building block for the digital home networks."

According to ABI Research, more than 150 million Wi-Fi ICs will be embedded into consumer electronics products by 2007, many of those driven by the need to deliver multimedia content.

"Audio receivers, DVRs, home and portable game consoles, and portable media players will reshape the home entertainment environment by unleashing content to be freely distributed throughout the home," said Philip Solis, ABI Research senior analyst. "This includes content streamed over the Internet, as well as content from the PC or any other consumer electronics device. The proliferation of Wi-Fi in the home is causing consumers to expect to be able to access their content from anywhere in the home. Newer Wi-Fi equipment must be able to perform well with high throughput at a great range while still maintaining compatibility with existing Wi-Fi equipment. MIMO technology is important because it will make this happen."

Product Details

Metalink's WLAN family will build on the company's proven mixed-signal communications processing expertise gained from ten years of excellence in high-end digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. The company's WLAN products will give set-top boxes, media gateways or other centralized systems the throughput and reach to seamlessly and reliably deliver music, movies and other rich-media content to consumer electronics appliances located anywhere in the home. They will support the emerging 802.11n standard including its foundational MIMO antenna technology, which takes WiFi to the next level by moving multiple, simultaneous RF signals over one radio channel and exploiting multipath signal propagation to increase throughput without consuming additional spectrum.

Metalink is the first to integrate two transmit and receive RF chains on one Real- MIMO chip (2 x 2 MIMO). The MtW8150 device features two complete and independent transmit and receive RF chains on a single cost-effective device, and is designed to be compliant with any IEEE 802.11n standard that is ratified. Operating in the 4.9 GHz to 5.9 GHz worldband frequency range, it supports the pre-standard IEEE 802.11n specification and also can operate on the 20 MHz frequency channel to maintain legacy interoperability.

For demanding HDTV distribution applications, the MtW8150 can be used in an asymmetric topology with more antennas on the service side than the client side, enabling designers to apply advanced techniques like beam forming to increase throughput and quality of service (QoS) while reducing overall equipment costs. To further increase throughput, multiple MtW8150 devices can be cascaded, using their integrated local oscillators (LOs) combined with LO sharing to eliminate the need for any external components. Throughput also can be improved using the device's 40 MHz channel-bonding capability.

The MtW8150 is available today in sample quantities, with volume quantities available in the third calendar quarter of 2005.

About Metalink

Metalink Ltd. (NASDAQ: MTLK) develops high performance silicon solutions revolutionizing the broadband experience by facilitating the convergence of telecommunication, networking and entertainment.

Metalink's DSL and WLAN technologies are designed to enable true broadband connectivity in every home.

Metalink's DSL products offer service providers a cost-effective network upgrade to support triple-play services. Using Metalink's innovative VDSL technologies operators can deliver fiber-like speeds over existing copper infrastructure. Metalink's chipsets are deployed in millions of DSL lines by leading service providers worldwide.

Metalink aims to redefine the home broadband experience by introducing WLANPlus(TM) - a high-throughput wireless LAN technology, 5-10 times faster than currently available wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g technologies. Featuring MIMO technology adopted by the 802.11n standardization, WLANPlus enables room-to-room networking of multiple high-definition video streams.

Metalink is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Yakum, Israel. The company has subsidiaries in California, South Korea, and Japan as well as offices in Beijing, China and Atlanta, Georgia. Further information is available at http://www.metalinkbb.com

This press release contains "forward looking" information within the meaning of the United States securities laws that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are set forth from time to time in Metalink's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Metalink's Annual Report in Form F-20. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to republish or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrences of unanticipated events. The Company cannot guarantee future results, events, and levels of activity, performance, or achievements.

US Media Contact: Kelly Poffenberger Weber Shandwick +1-949-428-3868 kpoffenberger@webershandwick.com

Ranen Cohen-Orgad Director of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications Metalink Ltd. Tel: +972-9-960-5450 Fax: +972-9-960-5399 US Tel: +1-678-325-5449 ranenc@metalinkBB.com

Tal Danziger MarCom Manager Metalink Ltd. Tel: +972-9-960-5401 Fax: +972-9-960-5544 tald@metalinkBB.com

Source: Metalink Ltd.

US Media Contact: Kelly Poffenberger, Weber Shandwick, +1-949-428-3868, kpoffenberger@webershandwick.com . Ranen Cohen-Orgad, Director of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, Metalink Ltd., Tel: +972-9-960-5450, Fax: +972-9-960-5399, US Tel: +1-678-325-5449, ranenc@metalinkBB.com . Tal Danziger, MarCom Manager, Metalink Ltd., Tel: +972-9-960-5401, Fax: +972-9-960-5544, tald@metalinkBB.com

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