AMCC Delivers Pluggable, Low-Power OC-48 Reference Design, Enabling Reduced System Costs for Customers.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OFC 2003

Booth #2152

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003

AMCC's 4-Bit Multi-Rate Transceiver with Clock and Data Recovery and

Agilent Technologies' Small Form Factor Pluggable Fiber-Optic

Transceiver Demonstrate Device Interoperability in an OC-48 Reference

Design

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (NASDAQ: AMCC) today announced the availability of a pluggable, low-power OC-48 reference design.

The reference design demonstrates the interoperability of AMCC's S3485 4-bit multi-rate transceiver (125 Mbps - 3 Gbps) with clock and data recovery (CDR), and a small form factor pluggable (SFP) multi-rate fiber-optic transceiver for SONET/SDH short reach (SR) and intermediate reach (IR) links from Agilent Technologies Inc.

Developed to facilitate the design implementation of AMCC's and Agilent's highly configurable solutions, the reference design provides key parameter measurements and circuit schematics that allow users to simulate a connection to the optics module, or via a SMA connector, to the high-speed serial ports of AMCC's S3485 CMOS device. In addition, the design enables interoperability testing and characterizes equipment for jitter and waveform evaluations.

"AMCC and Agilent have had continued success in demonstrating the interoperability of our hardware, which offers a significant time-to-market advantage for our customers," said Alan Sorgi, AMCC's director of marketing applications. "Together, these devices provide outstanding power, jitter, and footprint specifications and thereby deliver a flexible solution for customers to immediately and cost effectively implement into their system designs."

The Agilent HFCT-5745 transceiver series is SONET/SDH compliant and offers high performance, cost effective modules for OC-48 serial optical communication applications. The transceivers perform all light-to-logic and logic-to-light functions and provide network designers with high-density solutions for short and intermediate range applications.

The S3485, AMCC's fourth generation OC-48 transceiver, utilizes .13-micron CMOS technology to provide outstanding power, jitter, and footprint specifications to customers. Utilizing AMCC's innovative design capabilities, the transceiver is packaged in a compact 12 x 12 mm2, 121-pin or 15x15 mm2, 196 pin PBGA and offers low jitter generation performance of less than 5mUI. In addition, the device features a significantly reduced power consumption as low as 275mW in most applications. The S3485 is compatible with AMCC's previous-generation S3455 transceiver, enabling customers to easily migrate and benefit from the low power consumption. Ideally suited for WDM equipment, SONET/SDH-based transmission systems and fiber optic test equipment applications, the S3485 supports multiple rates (125 Mbps - 3 Gbps).

OFC Demonstration

AMCC will be demonstrating the reference design in the company's booth at the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference in Atlanta, which is being held at the Georgia World Congress Center March 24 - March 28, 2003. For more information about this demonstration, please visit AMCC in booth #2152 at OFC. Exhibits will be open Tuesday, March 25 through Thursday, March 27.

Availability

The OC-48 reference design is currently available from AMCC at www.amcc.com/OC48ReferenceDesign. AMCC's S3485 and Agilent's HFCT-5745 OC-48 transceiver series are currently sampling.

About AMCC

AMCC designs, develops, manufactures, and markets high-performance, high-bandwidth silicon solutions empowering intelligent wide area networks. AMCC utilizes a combination of digital, mixed-signal and high frequency analog design expertise coupled with system-level knowledge and multiple silicon process technologies to offer integrated circuit products that enable the transport of voice and data over fiber optic networks. The company's system solution portfolio includes switch fabric, traffic management, network processor, framer/mapper, PHY and PMD devices that address the high-performance needs of the evolving intelligent optical network. AMCC's corporate headquarters are located in San Diego. 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 products discussed in this press release are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the risk that the products would not be successfully or timely developed or manufactured or achieve market acceptance, risks relating to general economic conditions, as well as the risks and uncertainties set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2002, and in other filings of the Company 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.

Product photos, datasheets and application notes are available upon request. AMCC is a registered trademark of Applied Micro Circuits Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.