Mindspeed Technologies was formed from the spin-off of the Network Access division of Conexant Systems, Inc. to shareowners on June 27, 2003; creating two independent, publicly traded communications semiconductor companies. Conexant Systems was established four years earlier when Rockwell International spun off its Rockwell Semiconductor Systems (RSS) division[6] to shareholders as an independent company focused exclusively on providing semiconductor products for communications electronics. The Network Access division (which became Mindspeed) helped to develop and commercialize 56kbps client-side and central-site modem technology in the mid- to late-1990s that was used to deploy dial-up Internet access services offered by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
As an independent company, Mindspeed used its experience in analog and mixed-signal communications semiconductor technology to create multi-core packet-processing devices for Voice over IP (VoIP) gateways, routers and other communications systems.