Fulcrum Microsystems and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation to Demonstrate First Low-Latency 10-Gigabit SFP+ Switch at OFC/NFOEC.

Companies Combine Space-Saving SFP+ Connectivity with Low-Latency Ethernet Switching in New Design

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Fulcrum Microsystems[R] and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (NASDAQ:AMCC) today announced a new, jointly designed SFP+ 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch reference design that combines Fulcrum's FocalPoint[R] FM2224 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch chip with AMCC's QT2035S SFP+ physical layer IC. The companies will demonstrate the solution at the upcoming OFC/NFOEC Technical Conference and Exposition March 25-29 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The reference design is the first to marry the space-saving SFP+ module form-factor, which is up to 30% smaller than competing form factors, with a high-performance, low-latency switch.

The joint Fulcrum/AMCC reference design is a 24-port, pizza-box-style switch with 12 SFP+ module cages and 12 CX4 connectors. The AMCC QT2035S IC enables all reaches of 10GE in an SFP+ form factor, including SR, LR, LRM and ER. In addition, 10 GbE over twin-axial copper cable is also supported. The use of Fulcrum switching technology ensures wire-rate switching performance with the industry's lowest latency of 200 ns. The combination provides the highest density and highest performance 10GE switching solution available on the market today.

"The 10-Gigabit Ethernet market is continuing its maturation with new technologies like SFP+ coming along to help bring down the costs. When you combine that with low-latency switching, you have a system versatile enough to meet the demands of real-time traffic in a data center or as a server interconnect," said Mike Zeile, vice president of marketing for Fulcrum Microsystems. "Working with AMCC's industry-leading technology helps us further our goal of facilitating the transition to 10-Gigabit Ethernet by building an ecosystem that makes it easy for designers to develop high-performance products."

"Every design today is striving for lower cost and lower power consumption, and our SFP+ products offer all of that plus a smaller form factor. This new reference design is an example of how we are going to aggressively take this technology to the market," said Mitch Kahn, vice president of marketing, transport products, AMCC. "We are committed to providing the best physical layer solutions available, and working with Fulcrum's 10-Gigabit silicon enables both of us to put together an industry-leading, complete processing and switching solution."

The FocalPoint family of low-latency switches includes the flagship FM2224, a 24-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch, and the FM2112, a 24-port switch with eight 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports and 16 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Two other switches in the family include the FM2104 and FM2103, which feature two 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports and eight and four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, respectively, and are designed for GPON switching card applications. All FocalPoint switches feature an industry-leading 200 nanoseconds (ns) of total latency. The switches combine this low latency with non-blocking throughput, the highest level of integration and the greatest power efficiency to become the cost-effective and high-performance choice for storage, computing/networking backplane and interconnect applications.

The AMCC QT2035S device is the industry's first silicon solution to integrate a standard, XAUI-based PHY with complete SFP+ signal processing. The device includes an advanced electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) circuitry that supports 10GBASE-R and 10GBASE-LRM SFP+ applications as well as operation over a low bandwidth Infiniband[TM] twin-axial cable. The QT2035S is low in power dissipation and is offered in a 13x13mm leaded or fully RoHS-compliant package.

About AMCC

AMCC is a global leader in network and embedded PowerPC[TM] processing, optical transport, and storage solutions. Its 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 its 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.

About Fulcrum Microsystems

Fulcrum Microsystems Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company focused on developing interconnect switch chips for next-generation board and system designs. The company's devices change the paradigm for interconnect, offering low-latency, fine-grained flow control and high throughput, which combine to simplify board design and to build in more flexibility and higher performance. More information can be found at www.fulcrummicro.com.