Agere Systems and Maxtor Develop an Integrated Serial ATA System-On-A-Chip for High-Performance Hard Disk Drives

FOR RELEASE TUESDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2003

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A, AGR.B) today announced that it has co-developed a Serial ATA (SATA) system-on-a-chip (SoC) with Maxtor Corporation (NYSE:MXO), a worldwide leader in hard disk drives. The custom SoC will be used in Maxtor's next-generation MaXLine™ and DiamondMax® SATA hard drives.

Combining Agere's storage semiconductor expertise and Maxtor's custom controller design, this highly integrated single-chip solution supports high-speed data throughput in hard disk drives (HDDs) targeting the enterprise, desktop and consumer electronics markets. The SATA SoC enables Maxtor's MaXLine SATA drives to deliver what is anticipated to be superior benchmark performance and offer a richer SATA feature set for enterprise mid-line fixed content or near-line disk-to-disk back-up storage applications. The SoC will also maximize performance for Maxtor's DiamondMax family of hard drives designed for PCs, game consoles, consumer electronics and other desktop storage-intensive applications.

"Agere and Maxtor have collaborated on this Serial ATA solution to boost performance across multiple drive designs," said Cecil Macgregor, vice president of Electronics at Maxtor. "The benefits inherent in SoC integration - improved board space and reduced power consumption - are enhanced with the addition of a one-chip, high-speed serial interface."

Agere's custom SATA SoC, currently sampling to Maxtor, replaces interim two-chip bridge solutions shipping today, while offering improved connectivity, performance, reliability and efficiency. The chip integrates a 1.5 gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) SATA I interface with a high-performance read-channel, microprocessor, memory and hard disk controller. This SoC complements Agere's TrueStore™ serial platform, which supports current and next-generation data rates for Serial ATA, Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) and Fibre Channel interface standards.

"Our close working relationship with Maxtor has yielded an integrated SATA SoC solution that delivers exceptional performance, paving the way for improved data throughput in desktop drives and lower cost storage alternatives to SCSI and Fibre Channel solutions in the enterprise market," said Joe O'Hare, vice president and general manager of Agere's Storage division.

Industry analyst firm iSuppli Corp. estimates that the number of hard disk drives deployed with integrated SATA interfaces will top 250 million units by 2005. Serial ATA provides OEMs, system builders and consumers with simplicity of design, with cables that are easy to route and install, as well as smaller cable connectors featuring improved silicon design and lower pin counts.

As a member and founding member of the Serial ATA Working Group, Agere and Maxtor respectively are collaborating with other industry players on finalizing the technical specifications for SATA II, which would double the data throughput of SATA I to 3.0 Gbits/s. Using Agere's Serial Storage Interface Platform (SSIP), HDD and system manufacturers will be able to capitalize on this new Serial ATA data rate to develop drive-side SoCs and host bus ASIC adapters. Agere's PHY-level SSIP solution is protocol- and data-rate agnostic, supporting 1.5- and 3.0-Gb/s speeds for Serial ATA and SAS implementations.

Agere Systems is a premier provider of advanced integrated circuit solutions for wireless data, high-density storage and multiservice networking applications. Agere's wireless data portfolio enables seamless network access and Internet connectivity through its GPRS offering for data-capable cellular phones, as well as Wi-Fi/802.11 solutions for wireless LANs and computing applications. The company is the market leader in providing integrated circuits for the hard disk drive market, with number one positions in sales of system-on-a-chip solutions and preamplifiers. Agere also provides custom and standard multiservice networking solutions to move information across wired, wireless and enterprise networks. Agere's customers include the leading PC manufacturers, wireless terminal providers, network equipment suppliers and hard-disk drive providers. More information about Agere Systems is available from its web site at www.agere.com.

Agere is a registered trademark and TrueStore, Agere Systems and the Agere Systems logo are trademarks of Agere Systems Inc.

Maxtor and DiamondMax are registered trademarks and MaXLine is a trademark of Maxtor Corporation.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on information available to Agere as of the date hereof. Agere's actual results could differ materially from the results stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the impact of any global or regional health epidemic, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, keeping pace with technological change, dependence on new product development, price and product competition, availability of manufacturing capacity, customer demand for our products and services, general industry and market conditions, timely completion of employment reductions and other restructuring and consolidation activities, limits on our ability to issue equity to raise capital and reliance on major customers and suppliers. For a further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2003. Agere disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.