AMCC Introduces Orinoco, the Industry's First Complete Single-Chip Solution to Aggregate 12 DS3/E3/EC-1s to an OC-12.

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SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2001

Orinoco Integrates the Clock Smoothing Circuitry Required to

Provide the Jitter-Free and Wander-Free Operation Required to

Aggregate 12 DS3/E3/EC-1s to an OC-12 in a Single Chip

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (NASDAQ:AMCC), a leader in high-bandwidth silicon connectivity solutions for the world's optical networks, Monday announced the Orinoco, the industry's first fully-integrated framing and mapping device capable of aggregating 12 DS3/E3/EC-1s to an OC-12 (STS-12/STM-4).

Orinoco represents a technology breakthrough in integration of 12 PLLs in a single device. This results in 80% savings in board space and helps network equipment manufacturers implement line-cards supporting up to 48 DS3 ports reducing time to market. Coupled with AMCC devices, such as Danube and Indus, Orinoco enables high-density aggregation of DS3s for optical transport over OC-48 and OC-192 to meet the rapidly growing demand for higher bandwidth in the metro region. Orinoco supports full-featured DS3/E3/STS-1E performance monitoring in both transmit and receive directions and offers full-duplex processing of SONET/SDH data streams with section, line and path overhead processing. Orinoco is ideally suited for WAN aggregation terminals, SONET/SDH multiplexers, digital cross-connects and switches.

"We developed Orinoco to concentrate on the digital cross-connect and optical transport market; this complete solution requires no external circuitry, has direct interfaces to STS-1/DS3/E3 line interface units on one side and serial or parallel OC-12 on the other," said Amit Banerjee, senior marketing manager at AMCC. "The device's industry-first aggregation capability further builds upon AMCC's robust framer and mapper roadmap, enabling customers to easily and cost-efficiently bridge DS3 traffic to higher-speed optical transport with interfaces to other AMCC devices, such as the OC-48 Missouri, Danube and OC-192 Indus."

"Cyras Systems has selected the Orinoco device for its density, which has eliminated the need for one external PLL per port, enabling us to put 24 DS3 ports into one line-card, while dramatically increasing the density of Cyras's product, K2," said Sunil Tomar, vice president of engineering, Cyras Systems Inc. "Integrating these PLLs on a single chip to meet jitter and wander specifications for mapping DS3s into SONET/SDH is a commendable achievement."

Orinoco provides full STS-1 framing, descrambling, performance monitoring and pointer processing in the transmit direction; in the receive direction, the device provides full STS-1 frame-generation and scrambling. Orinoco also supports the integrated DS3/E3 desynchronizer and PLL circuitry necessary to provide DS3/E3 clear channel outputs that meet Bellcore, ANSI and ITU jitter requirements. This device offers 12 serial clock/data interfaces for DS3/E3/STS-1E input/output and supports M23, C-bit parity DS3, G.751 and G.832 frame formats. Orinoco supports on the SONET/SDH side with a serial 622MHz LVDS interface or an 8bit wide, 78MHz telecom bus. This solution is SONET and SDH standards compliant with Bellcore GR-253 and GR-499 and ITU G.707 and G.783.

Availability

Packaged in 474-pin CBGA, Orinoco is currently sampling with volume production scheduled for Q1 2001.

About AMCC

AMCC designs, develops, manufactures, and markets high-performance, high-bandwidth silicon solutions for the world's optical networks. AMCC utilizes a combination of high-frequency analog, mixed-signal and digital 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 PMD, PHY, framer/mapper, network processor, traffic management and switch fabric devices that address the high-performance needs of the evolving intelligent optical network. AMCC's corporate headquarters and wafer fabrication facilities are located in San Diego. Sales and engineering offices are located throughout the world.

AMCC 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 new products derived from the relationship are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the risk that such products would not be successfully developed or achieve market acceptance, as well as the other risks and uncertainties set forth in the "Factors That May Affect Future Results" detailed in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2000, and in other filings of the company and MMC Networks 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 the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

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

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