AMCC Adds Dual-Port, CMOS, Fibre Channel Transceiver to Low-Cost, Low-Power, High-Speed SiliconHiway Family.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 1999--

AMCC's Highly-Integrated, Dual-Port Transceiver Offers the Industry's

Best Combination of Power, Performance and Cost to Optimize Fibre

Channel Switching Applications

Leading high-bandwidth silicon connectivity provider Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (Nasdaq:AMCC) introduced today the S2078 -- an off-the-shelf, CMOS-fabricated, dual-port transceiver for Fibre Channel applications.

Designed for use in high-speed serial data transmission over fiber optic or copper interfaces, both of the S2078's two ports operate at 1.062 Gbps in conformance with ANSI X3T11 Fibre Channel specification. The S2078 is a dual-port counterpart to AMCC's already released S2076 quad-port Fibre Channel transceiver. As the newest addition to AMCC's SiliconHiway(TM) family, the S2078 further paves the way toward providing lower-cost, lower-power, high-speed data communications across SANs and LANs.

"We are pleased to introduce the 12th product, the S2078, to our SiliconHiway(TM) family," said John Schaefer, AMCC's datacom product marketing manager. "By offering such a broad range of off-the-shelf chips that work together for multiple applications, AMCC's customers can quickly and easily build a custom, Fibre Channel solution that is guaranteed to meet all relevant industry standards," said Schaefer.

AMCC's S2078 bundles two ports into a single 21 mm x 21 mm 156-pin TBGA package, making it ideally suited for high-density Fibre Channel switching applications and data broadcast environments. The S2078 also suits designs with stringent power requirements because it dissipates only 1.33W of power (0.665mW per port) from a single 3.3V supply.

"The introduction of the S2078 exemplifies AMCC's on-going commitment to providing our customers with high-speed, low-power, highly-integrated silicon solutions that establish a new price/performance equation in the industry," stated Schaefer.

Both of the S2078's two bi-directional ports perform framing for block encoded data, in addition to parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data conversion, over fiber optic, twinax, coax or TTL-compatible interfaces. With a 1.9V differential output swing, each port is capable of driving signal transmission over 30 meters of twinax cable. The S2078's transmitter and receiver support differential LVPECL-compatible interfaces to minimize crosstalk and maximize data signal integrity.

The S2078's on-chip transmit Phased Lock Loop (PLL) performs clock generation by synthesizing the high-speed clock from a 106.2 MHz (for 1.062 Gbps rate) or 53.1 MHz (for 531 Mbps rate) reference clock. For clock recovery and data re-timing, the S2078's on-chip dual receive PLL synchronizes directly to the incoming data stream. In addition, the S2078 also performs continuous downstream clocking from the receiver.

To simplify overall system design and increase applications flexibility, the S2078 can be configured to accept a reference clock of 1/10 or 1/20 the serial data rate. In addition, the S2078's clock output is derived from its PLL and is provided as a system clock for upstream circuitry, which further eases layout requirements and minimizes jitter.

AMCC's S2078 also features a local loopback mode for system diagnostics, and meets jitter generation of less than 0.2 UI (188 ps) and jitter tolerance of greater than 0.7 UI (660 ps) as specified in ANSI X3T11 Fibre Channel physical and transmission protocol standards.

Pricing and Availability

Currently in production, the S2078 dual-port, Fibre Channel transceiver is priced at $18.20 each in quantities of 1,000.

AMCC designs, develops, manufacturers and markets high-performance, high-bandwidth silicon solutions for the world's communication infrastructure. The Company utilizes a combination of high-frequency, mixed-signal design expertise and multiple silicon process technologies to offer IC products for the telecommunications market that address the SONET/SDH and ATM transmission standards and for the data communications markets that address the Gigabit Ethernet, ATM and Fibre Channel transmission standards.

AMCC's core technologies also address ATE and high-speed computing needs. AMCC's corporate headquarters and wafer fabrication facilities are located in San Diego. Sales and consulting engineering offices are located throughout the world. For further information regarding AMCC and its products, write: Marketing Communication Department, AMCC, 6290 Sequence Drive, San Diego, Calif. 92121-4358; or call 800/755-AMCC (800/755-2622) or 619/450-9333; or fax [phone]; or email [e-mail]; or visit our Web site at http://www.amcc.com.

Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release are forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward looking statements, including such factors as the rescheduling or cancellation of orders by customers; fluctuations in the timing and amount of customer requests for product shipments; fluctuations in manufacturing yields and inventory levels; changes in product mix; the company's ability to introduce new products and technologies on a timely basis; the introduction of products and technologies by the Company's competitors; the availability of external foundry capacity, purchase parts, and raw materials; competitive pressures on selling prices, the timing of investments in research and development; market acceptance of the company's and its customer's products; the timing of depreciation and other expenses to be incurred by the company in connection with the expansion of its existing manufacturing facility and in connection with its proposed new manufacturing facility; the timing and amount of recruiting and relocation expenses, prototyping costs and promotional expenses; costs associated with future litigation, if any, including without limitation, litigation relating to the use or ownership of intellectual property; costs associated with compliance with applicable environmental regulation; general semiconductor industry conditions; and general economic conditions, including, but not limited to, economic conditions in Asia and the risk factors that are detailed in the Final Prospectus relating to the recent initial public offering of the company's Common Stock, the Preliminary Prospectus relating to the company's current public offering, and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Product photos, datasheets and application notes are available upon request. AMCC is a registered trademark of Applied Micro Circuits Corp.