CAMARILLO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (Pink Sheets: VTSS), a leading provider of advanced IC solutions for Carrier and Enterprise networks, today announced that it has been certified as a Green Partner™ by Sony Corporation. Vitesse was awarded this designation based on its ability to provide an Environmental Management System that ensures product content and manufacturing processes meet or exceed Sony's strict requirements.

Established in 2001 to encourage suppliers to produce components with minimal environmental impact, the Sony Green Partner certification, referred to as “upstream management,” is accomplished through complete traceability of all steps in the manufacturing process, from raw material procurement to finished goods delivery. The program is considered industrywide to be the bellwether for compliance with existing requirements as well as the catalyst for proactive adoption of foreseeable regulations and initiatives in the future. In fact, Sony’s Green Partner standards are more stringent than those of RoHS (the European Parliament’s Directive 2002/95/EC on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment).

“Successfully establishing a worldwide environmental management system is another milestone in Vitesse’s commitment to providing green products to an increasingly environmentally conscious electronics industry,” said Roy Carew, vice president, quality and product and test engineering for Vitesse. “Certification as a Sony Green Partner not only allows Vitesse to market its products to Sony and its supply chain, but also validates our longstanding dedication to environmentally conscious products and practices that meet both regulatory and customer requirements well in advance of mandated deadlines.”

Broadening public awareness, surges in network usage and adoption of global legislation have all resulted in heightened demand for networking equipment with superior operating efficiency that results in a positive impact for businesses, consumers and the environment. Vitesse has addressed this demand by being the first Ethernet silicon supplier to deliver innovative green features that provide energy savings of up to 80-percent in any network infrastructure device or consumer premise equipment incorporating its widely adopted SimpliPHY™, SparX™ and G-RocX™ Ethernet products. These award-winning product families have been designated by Vitesse as EcoEthernet™ solutions and are known industrywide for having Vitesse’s proprietary green technologies: ActiPHY™ and PerfectReach™. For more information, please visit www.vitesse.com/green.

About Vitesse

Vitesse designs, develops and markets a diverse portfolio of high-performance, cost-competitive semiconductor solutions for Carrier and Enterprise Ethernet networks worldwide. Engineering excellence and dedicated customer service distinguish Vitesse as an industry leader in Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Ethernet-over-SONET, Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI, Optical Transport, and other applications. Vitesse innovation empowers customers to deliver superior products for Enterprise, Access, Metro, and Core applications. Additional company and product information is available at www.vitesse.com.

Vitesse is a registered trademark and SimpliPHY, SparX, G-RocX, EcoEthernet, ActiPHY and PerfectReach are trademarks in the United States and/or other jurisdictions of Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holders.

Safe Harbor

Statements made in this release that are not historical facts are “forward-looking” statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) that involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time. These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements containing words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “plan,” “estimate,” “expect,” “hope,” “intend,” and similar expressions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are identified in the public filings made by Vitesse with the Securities and Exchange Commission and include the fact that we have disclosed that you should not rely upon our published financial statements and the fact that we have not filed all of our reports required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. More information on factors that could affect our business and financial results are included in our public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on the web site of the Securities and Exchange Commission, www.sec.gov. The forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond our control. We caution investors that any forward-looking statements made by us are not guarantees of future performance, including, but not limited to, the risks that the recently announced proposed settlement of certain lawsuits against the Company will not be completed or approved by the court, that any court approval will be successfully reversed on appeal, or that the settlement agreement is terminated or cancelled under its terms. We disclaim any obligation to update any such factors or to announce publicly the results of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments.