AMCC to Enable System Services in Demanding Packet-over-SONET and Ethernet Applications with the PRS 80G Switch Fabric.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NPC West

Booth #610

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 2003

Compact Switch Fabric Design and 25% Reduction in Power

Dissipation Will Relieve the Pressure of Space and Power Limitations

Facing Equipment Manufacturers, Network Service Providers and

Enterprise Customers

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (NASDAQ: AMCC) today announced the latest member of the industry-leading Packet Routing Switch (PRS) multi-purpose switch fabric family, recently acquired from IBM. The AMCC PRS 80G chipset will address the increasingly important space and power requirements currently challenging equipment manufacturers, network service providers and enterprise customers by providing high-performance switching capabilities in a low-power, compact switch fabric design. An integral part of a complete system solution with AMCC network processors, traffic managers, framers and software tools, the PRS 80G will enable faster time-to-market for OEMs addressing the wide range of high-bandwidth, demanding applications in the Metro Ethernet, WAN multi-services and enterprise (data centers, NAS/SAN, high-end LANs) space. To facilitate the evaluation and prototyping of complete solutions, a reference switch board featuring the AMCC PRS 80G will be available in a standards-based, AdvancedTCA(TM)-compliant form factor.

"This flexible and scalable fabric will continue the legacy of the industry-leading PRS switch fabric family, by continuing to reduce customer development costs and shorten time-to-market, while enabling the introduction of additional system services," said Gilles Garcia, switch marketing manager representing AMCC. "The backward compatibility of the PRS 80G will make it possible to co-populate both current and new line cards in a single chassis, facilitating customer-driven evolution paths from existing systems while protecting system vendor and end-user investments in existing line and switch cards."

As part of this announcement, AMCC is also introducing the PRS C64X and PRS C192X switch fabric interface chips. The PRS 80G switch, when used in conjunction with these fabric interface devices, will provide 40 Gbps (single chip) or 80 Gbps (two chips) full-duplex aggregate user bandwidth with a per-port speed-up factor of two, fully enabling system services such as security, deep packet inspection, Web caching, and SSL in demanding Packet-over-SONET (PoS) and Ethernet applications. The device can attach up to 16x multi-GE/OC-48c adapter cards equipped with the PRS C48X fabric interface chip, or 4x 10Gbps/OC-192c adapter cards equipped with the PRS C192X fabric interface chip, or any intermediate combination. In a two-device configuration, the PRS 80G will enable the development of scalable single-stage switch fabrics with up to 32 port attachments for protocol engines that support OC-48c or any multiple Gigabit Ethernet applications, or up to 8 ports for 10Gbps Ethernet and OC-192c applications, or any intermediate mix of those.

The PRS C192X chip will be configurable in subport mode, allowing switch designs with up to four multi- GE/OC-48c network processors per line card; compared with previous generations of similar PRS devices, the PRS C192X can -- in conjunction with the PRS 80G -- reduce the number of chips required by greater than 50% in new 40-80 Gbps system designs. The PRS 80G device will be the first of the PRS family of fabrics to utilize IBM 0.13-micron technology and the latest IBM 3.2 Gbps high-speed serial links. The solution is hardware and software compatible with the PRS 64Gu, Q-64G, C48 and C192, protecting customers' existing investments and enabling flexible evolution paths.

Availability

The PRS 80G will begin sampling in Q1, 2004, and the C48X and C192X interface devices will be sampling in early Q2, 2004. For additional technical information, visit www.amcc.com/BestInClass/PRS80G. For a photo of the PRS 80G, visit www.amcc.com/BestInClass/PRS80GPhoto.

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, 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, 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 for the year ended March 31, 2003, 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 Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.