BusinessWire
October 17, 2005 05:00 AM US Pacific Timezone

AMCC Unveils New ATCA Switch Blade and Fabric Interface Card Based on PICMG 3.6 Cell Switching Standardization for Wireless Infrastructure and WAN Applications

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2005--

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) (NASDAQ:AMCC) today announced the PRS40G-ATCA 40 Gbps Switch, the industry's first AdvancedTCA (ATCA) Cell Switch Blade providing both base switch and fabric switch in a single slot. The blade is based on the PICMG 3.0 ATCA standard and features the carrier class capabilities described in the PICMG 3.6 Cell Switching draft specification. AMCC's latest offering will provide customers with a standard, production-ready ATCA solution, enabling reduced time-to-market. The ATCA Cell Switch Blade, together with pre-validated ATCA I/O blades, such as the recently announced nP3710 ATCA blade based on AMCC's nP3710 network processor and MISSION(TM) chipset, extends the ATCA ecosystem with full standard cell switching solutions.

AMCC is a leading participant in the PICMG 3.6 Sub-Committee, which was created to standardize ATCA cell switching for carrier-grade applications. AMCC is offering its market leading PRS specification as the baseline for this new PICMG 3.6 standard. The PICMG organization approved the formation of the PICMG 3.6 Sub-Committee on September 13th 2005 to provide for better carrier-grade ATCA solutions, using AMCC's PRS backplane fabric interface. The future adoption of this PICMG 3.6 specification will allow customers to use standard solutions that provide best-in-class features for high-end, carrier-grade switching applications. The PICMG 3.6 Sub-Committee is made of members from the semiconductor, board, system integrator and system vendor arenas, which represents broad interest and support of AMCC's switch base specification proposal for the PICMG 3.6 standard.

"We support the activity of the PICMG 3.6 Sub-Committee, which will ultimately provide a complete PRS-based PICMG 3.6 Cell Switching architecture," said Don Faria, Altera's senior vice president, business units. "This standard, along with the flexibility and industry-leading performance provided by Altera's FPGAs, will offer users a robust architecture for implementing the cell switching solutions that customers require."

AMCC's leading PRS40G-ATCA switch blade provides control plane Ethernet switch functionality and a data plane fabric switch based on the currently defined PICMG 3.6 standard. The PRS solution is available as a result of AMCC's joint development ventures with leading ATCA switch blade providers and system integrators.

"AMCC has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to expand the Switch Fabric market ecosystem by engaging with partners such as Altera Corporation, RadiSys Corporation and ZNYX Networks. By doing so, we can deliver best in class solutions and meet the critical specifications our customers need to fulfill," said Daryn Lau, vice president and general manager for AMCC's Integrated Communications Products Business Unit. "Our technology expertise enables us to provide customers with low and constant latency, efficient QoS and full bandwidth multicast capabilities that no other switch architecture, whether it be proprietary or standard, can provide."

AMCC's PRS40G-ATCA Switch Blade is based on the ZNYX ZX6000 ATCA Hub board hosting a mezzanine card featuring the AMCC PRS 80G cell switch. It is designed to provide full switch blade redundancy and to address applications requiring up to 12 payload slots, each supporting from 2.5Gbps (Packet over SONET) to 4Gbps (Ethernet) user bandwidth. Four additional switch ports are available on backplane connectors for optional rear transition module implementation by the user. The PRS40G-ATCA complements the company's previously introduced PRS80G-ATCA Switch Blade which supports 8 ATCA 10Gbps I/O blades. The PRS40G-ATCA switch works seamlessly with AMCC's nP3710 ATCA Blade equipped with the new AMCC PRS C192X Fabric Interface Chip (FIC) card. The PRS C192X FIC card is designed to also equip the recently announced RadiSys Promentum ATCA-7010 blade. It supports star topology implementation with an ATCA Cell Switch blade like the PRS40G-ATCA, as well as mesh topology (no centralized fabric switch).Up to 8 ATCA I/O blades equipped with the PRS C192X FIC card can interoperate in mesh topology, of which one or two blades can support a 10 Gbps uplink.

Availability

AMCC's PRS40G-ATCA Switch Blade and PRS C192X FIC Card will begin sampling in Q4 2005 with volume production commencing in 2006. For a photo of the AMCC PRS40G-ATCA Switch Blade, visit http://www.amcc.com/BestInClass/PRS40G/Photo/. For a photo of the AMCC PRS C192X FIC card, visit http://www.amcc.com/BestInClass/PRSC192X/Photo/.

AMCC at the Network Systems Design Conference

AMCC will be participating in The Linley Group's Network Systems Design Conference, which is taking place October 18 - 20, 2005, at Parkside Hall in San Jose, CA. For more information about AMCC's involvement in this event, please visit http://www.amcc.com/Company/events.html#Speaking.

About AMCC

AMCC provides the essential building blocks for the processing, moving and storing of information worldwide. The company blends systems and software expertise with high-performance, high-bandwidth silicon integration to deliver silicon, hardware and software solutions for global wide area networks (WAN), embedded applications such as PowerPC and programmable SOC architectures, storage area networks (SAN), and high-growth storage markets such as Serial ATA (SATA) RAID. AMCC's corporate headquarters are located in San Diego, California. Sales and engineering offices are located throughout the world. For further information regarding AMCC, please visit our web site at http://www.amcc.com.

Forward Looking Statements

The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the markets, growth of markets and products, including the risk that the markets would not grow at the rates forecasted, and the demand for products would not materialize, risks relating to general economic conditions, as well as the risks and uncertainties set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and AMCC does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

AMCC is a registered trademark of Applied Micro Circuits Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.