MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 22, 2010 – Cavium Networks (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications, and the digital home announced that the recent Heavy Reading (a publication of Lightreading, Inc.) report “TEMs Rate Multicore & Network Processor Suppliers” ranks Cavium Networks OCTEON^® Multicore MIPS64^® processor families #1 based on achieving highest overall weighted score of responses from professionals representing more than 50 equipment vendors and system manufacturers worldwide. This score was based on current and projected use of multicore processors and NPUs as critical components in a broad range of networking equipment. The Heavy Reading report is targeted to help equipment vendors evaluate and choose processors for their next generation systems. The complete report can be purchased online from www.heavyreading.com/commchip.

“This report analyzes the current and projected use of multicore processors and NPUs by telecom and networking equipment manufacturers, based on the results of an exclusive worldwide survey of engineers, designers, product manager and sales/marketing personnel,” said Simon Stanley, Analyst at Large, Heavy Reading. “In our survey results, Cavium scored significantly higher than other multicore processor vendors and the results show that they are winning new customers for the OCTEON II that are not already using the OCTEON Plus.”

The report surveys a broad range of equipment manufacturers across all geographies. It identifies that multicore processors are replacing NPUs at rates up to 10Gbps. Also the report mentions that integrated Multicore processors are the primary choice for implementing control plane processing compared to standard processors. Furthermore the report identifies that performance and software compatibility are the two highest ranked features in selecting a next generation processor, and increased integration is the key for future multicore processors.

“We are pleased with the results of this extensive survey by Heavy Reading and sincerely thank our customers for their continued support and feedback,” said Rajiv Khemani, VP and GM, networking and communications division at Cavium Networks. “This survey validates our leadership position and demonstrates increasing market adoption and share through our latest generation OCTEON II processor family due to its leading application performance, low power and software compatibility.”

Cavium Networks OCTEON family of Multicore MIPS64 processors delivers industry-leading scalability, performance, integration and low-power solutions for intelligent networking applications ranging from 100Mbps to 40Gbps. These software-compatible processors, with one to thirty-two cnMIPS cores on a single chip, integrate next-generation networking I/Os along with the most advanced security, networking and application hardware acceleration, offering unprecedented throughput and programmability for the Layer 2 through Layer 7 processing requirements of intelligent networks.

About Cavium Networks
Cavium Networks is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications and the digital home. Cavium Networks offers a broad portfolio of integrated, software-compatible processors ranging in performance from 10 Mbps to 40 Gbps that enable secure, intelligent functionality in enterprise, data-center, broadband/consumer and access & service provider equipment. Cavium Networks processors are supported by ecosystem partners that provide operating systems, tool support, reference designs and other services. Cavium Networks principal offices are in Mountain View, CA with design team locations in California, Massachusetts and India. For more information, please visit: http://www.caviumnetworks.com.