AMCC Ships Industry's First Fully Integrated Dual Port SFP+ Transceiver.

First to Market 10 Gigabit PHY Provides Smooth Transition for Ethernet Switch Vendors Seeking to Gain Advantages of SPF+ Module Form Factor

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (NASDAQ:AMCC) announced its latest product resulting from last year's acquisition of Quake Technologies. The QT1215 transceiver, with an advanced reprogrammable, mixed signal electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) engine, meets current industry demand for a fully featured product that can provide a seamless interface between a 10 Gbps serializer/deserializer (SerDes) and a Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP+) optical module. AMCC has been sampling the dual port product since January of this year and general availability (GA) is scheduled for July.

Several market forces are at work driving customer demand for the QT1215. Data center administrators want to take advantage of the performance and interoperability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), but without making expensive upgrades to their existing multimode fiber (MMF) infrastructure. At the same time, switch vendors need to make 10 GbE networks more cost and density competitive in order to deliver the price/performance benefits that end users are requesting. Additionally, both network interface card and switch manufacturers want to support dual speed (1GbE/10GbE) operation in order to further ease the migration to 10GbE.

The primary means of meeting these challenges is to enable 10 GbE ODMs/OEMs to incorporate the new SFP+ pluggable optical module form factor. The adoption of SFP+ is already leading to dramatic cost, power and size reductions, resulting in a significant increase in port densities and an even greater decrease in module costs, relative to XAUI or XFP modules.

"For more than six years we have been totally focused on developing and marketing products for 10 Gigabit Ethernet applications," said Mitch Kahn, vice president of marketing, transport products for AMCC. "It's the foundation of our success and the reason we are the first company to ship a dual port SFP+ transceiver. The QT1215 is the latest in our line of 10 GbE PHY products and will play a key role in driving the decline of port prices for 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches and NICs."

A clear differentiator for the QT1215 is an advanced, programmable, mixed-signal EDC engine. The transceiver makes use of a unique architecture that blends the best aspects of DSP and analog signal processing techniques to provide dispersion compensation that adapts instantly to environmental changes.

"At 10GHz speeds, you need to choose an architecture that strikes the right balance between power, cost and performance. By combining both digital and analog signal processing techniques, we have developed a solution superior to that possible with either a pure digital or pure analog approach," Kahn added.

The QT1215 is a fully integrated two port 9.95 - 10.6 Gbps SFP+ EDC transceiver with industry compliant send/receive XFI interfaces between the transceiver and the MAC/SerDes and SFP+ interfaces between the transceiver and the SFP+ module. Sophisticated multi-tap pre-emphasis in the SFP+ transmit direction compensates for a wide range of circuit board impairments and can provide optical signals that rival XFP and XAUI modules.

In the receive direction, the QT1215 supports all 10 GbE optical standards including SR, LR, LRM and ER as well as emerging technologies such as twin-axial cable and data center reach optics. Operations compatible with 1000Base-SX/LX, the transceiver also supports interoperability with 1 GbE SFP modules.

About AMCC

AMCC is a global leader in network and embedded PowerPC[TM] processing, optical transport and storage solutions. Our products enable the development of converged IP-based networks offering high-speed secure data, high-definition video and high-quality voice for carrier, metropolitan, access and enterprise applications. AMCC provides networking equipment vendors with industry-leading communications processing, Ethernet, SONET and switch fabric solutions. AMCC is also the leading vendor of high-port count SATA RAID controllers enabling low-cost, high-performance, high-capacity storage. AMCC's corporate headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, 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

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as expects, anticipates, plans, believes, estimates, will or words of similar meaning. 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 may not be successfully or timely developed, completed 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, and in the Company's other SEC filings. 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 press release are made as of the date hereof and AMCC does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

AMCC IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF APPLIED MICRO CIRCUITS CORPORATION.