OTTAWA, CANADA, March 17, 2008 – Zarlink Semiconductor Inc. (NYSE/TSX:ZL) today reinforced its commitment to, and leadership in, the growing VoIP market by introducing three new members of its market-leading Legerity® VE880 VoicePort™ Series of VoIP telephone interface devices. The Le88266, Le88276 and Le88286 devices offer a seamless pin-compatible upgrade from existing devices while bringing performance improvements targeting the residential and enterprise VoIP gateway markets.

The enhanced VE880 VoicePort Series supports the broadest range of applications while providing the lowest total cost of ownership. The new devices require approximately half as many external components compared to competing solutions, minimizing circuit board area, lowering external bill of material (BOM) costs and reducing manufacturing expenses. Furthermore, the new devices typically use 50 percent less power than competing devices, thus addressing customers’ ecological concerns regarding minimizing power consumption.

\"Zarlink\'s new VoicePort products support the latest requirements from VoIP service providers and demonstrate our commitment and leadership in the voice market,\" said Warner Andrews, vice president of marketing for Zarlink\'s Wired Communications Group. \"Continuing worldwide demand for triple-play and VoIP services is driving incumbent and next-generation carriers to deploy multi-service gateways containing our products.\"

The number of VoIP subscribers is expected to grow from 46 million in 2006 to 172 million by 2010, according to industry analyst firm Infonetics. Zarlink, with at least 40% market share in the voice circuit market, expects to grow its position as network operators aggressively deploy triple-play voice, video and data services.

Enabling the Highest Performance and Quality Voice

The VE880 Series is optimized for all types of voice-over-broadband residential gateway applications, including cable embedded multimedia terminal adaptors (EMTAs), DSL integrated access devices (IADs) and fiber to the home (FTTH) optical network terminals (ONTs).

Each new VE880 VoicePort device supports both wideband and narrowband telephony operation. They are all supported by the VoicePath API-II Software Development Kit to speed product development, and enable improved telephone line testing capability through the award-winning VeriVoice Test Suite software.

Two power supply configurations are supported with these new devices. First is an automatic battery switching (ABS) power supply configuration (Le88266 and Le88286), which allows one power supply to be shared across multiple channels delivering the lowest possible BOM cost. Second is a tracking power supply configuration (Le88276) that enables the lowest possible power consumption, making it especially suitable for applications that require battery backup. The VE880 Series can support up to 140 Vpk ringing which is well above carrier and operator requirements.

Available in an 80-pin eLQFP package, the enhanced VoicePort devices deliver two complete FXS telephone line interfaces, from the TDM interface on a broadband SoC, to the tip and ring wires of the RJ-11 or other telephone connector.

Availability and Additional Information

The Le88266, Le88276 and Le88286 2 channel FXS VE880 VoicePort devices are now in production. For more information on Zarlink\'s Legerity product line, please visit www.legerity.com or contact Mr. Timothy at Seraphim,Taiwan distributor of Zarlink, tel: 26984540 ext. 222 or email to timothychen@seraphim.com.tw .

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