AMCC Introduces Industry's First Quad-Channel, CMOS-fabricated Serial Backplane IC With Boundary Scan for Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel Applications.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 1999--

The First in a Planned Family of Devices That Test Pin Connectivity,

The S2004 Serial Backplane Interconnect IC Provides Customers With

Enhanced Board-Level Testing and Simplified Board Design.

Leading high-bandwidth silicon connectivity provider Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (Nasdaq:AMCC) introduced today the industry's first off-the-shelf, CMOS-fabricated, quad-channel serial backplane interconnect IC with boundary scan for use in Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel applications.

As the first device in a planned family of serial backplane devices that test pin connectivity, the S2004 scans I/O signals with IEEE 1149.1 specification-compliant JTAG implementation. In addition to enhancing customer board-level test capabilities with integrated boundary scan, the S2004's TTL inputs, internally series terminated TTL outputs, and external LVPECL outputs also simplify board design and layout.

"We specifically developed the S2004 to meet the board-level testing needs of our customers. Thanks to its boundary scan feature and several integrated features, the S2004 will significantly reduce our customers' design efforts and time-to-market cycles," said Jon Siann, AMCC's marketing director for datacom products. "As part of our popular SiliconHiway(TM) family, and the first of its own line, the S2004 represents AMCC's ongoing commitment to providing our customers with the industry's best combination of power, performance and price," said Siann.

AMCC's S2004 IC facilitates high-speed serial data transmission in a variety of applications, including Ethernet backbones, workstations, frame buffer, switched networks, data broadcast environments and proprietary extended backplanes.

The S2004's highly flexible 0.98 to 1.3 GHz operating range makes it ideal for Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, serial backplanes and proprietary point-to-point links. (Refer to attached diagram for illustration of typical network application using the S2004.)

The S2004 quad-channel serial backplane interconnect provides four separate, full duplex, 1.25 Gbps transceivers that can be operated individually or locked together for an aggregate data capacity of up to 5 Gbps.

Clock generation for the S2004 is performed by a flexible on-chip transmit Phased Lock Loop (PLL) which synthesizes the high-speed clock from a 125 MHz (for 1.25 Gbps) or 62.5 MHz (for 625 Mbps rate) reference clock. Four receive PLLs synchronize directly to incoming signals, while simultaneously re-timing and regenerating the data stream.

The S2004's transmitter and receiver each support differential PECL compatible I/O which minimizes crosstalk and maximizes data integrity.

In addition to performing parallel-to serial and serial-to-parallel data conversion, each of the S2004's four bi-directional channels provide complete clock generation/recovery and framing for block encoded data over fiber optic, twinax, or coax interfaces.

Each channel also individually handles on-chip 8B/10B encoding and decoding, with support for special data and control characters, which ensures balanced data transmission over the backplane.

The S2004 features multiple clocking options for simplification of overall system design and increased application flexibility. It can be configured to accept a reference clock of 1/10 or 1/20 the serial data rate. A clock output is derived from the PLL, and is provided as a system clock for upstream circuitry, which eases layout requirements and minimizes jitter.

AMCC's S2004 also features individual local loopback for off-line system diagnostics of a single interface without disabling the other functioning channels. The S2004 meets jitter generation of less than 192 ps and greater than 599 ps as specified in the IEEE 802.32 Gigabit Ethernet specification.

The S2004 dissipates 2.5W (0.625W per channel) of power from a single +3.3V supply, and comes in a compact 23mm x 23mm 208-pin TBGA package.

Pricing and Availability

Currently in production, AMCC's S2004 is priced at $55 each in quantities of 1000. The remaining S2004 family members are scheduled to be released this quarter.

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.