AMCC Delivers Comprehensive Evaluation Kit, Accelerating Customers' Time-to-Market

Saguaro Evaluation Kit Features Innovative, Ease-of-Use Capabilities Designed for nP3705 Packet Processor Evaluations

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (NASDAQ:AMCC) today announced the availability of the Saguaro low-cost, easy-to-use evaluation kit for its nP3705 packet processor. The kit contains an AdvancedTCA® (ATCA) form factor evaluation board, which includes an nP3705 packet processor for data-plane functions, a PowerPC® 440EP processor for the control plane, and AMCC's Amur S1215 framer device. The Saguaro evaluation kit allows customers first to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the nP3705 packet processor and then to use the base hardware/software design as a starting point for their own product development.

To accelerate customers' system development time, AMCC's Saguaro evaluation kit provides users with a comprehensive set of resources including a custom-designed evaluation board, optimized packet processor software tools, an industry-leading PowerPC software development environment, sample applications, and hardware design files. A Resource CD included in the kit offers a wide range of sample applications that can be used as a basis for customers' software development, as well as various utilities to aid in system configuration. The CD also includes AMCC's "nP Workshop" software development tools, enabling customers to use the kit as their software development platform before their own target hardware is available. Available separately, applications software source code packages implementing various protocols, such as IPV4, IPV6, ATM, AAL2, AAL5, IMA, etc., enable faster time-to-market while still allowing for maximum flexibility and visibility.

Also included in the evaluation kit is a suite of advanced processor and board diagnostics from Kozio, Inc., known as kDiagnostics™. This diagnostics package, which can be licensed by customers and quickly configured for their custom hardware design, performs in-depth testing of the PowerPC processor and evaluation board.

“One of the biggest problems facing customers who want to use off-the-shelf network processing solutions is meeting the code development requirements on those processors,” said Joseph Byrne, senior analyst at The Linley Group and author of “A Guide to Access Processors.” “Companies like AMCC are helping to reduce code development time, which facilitates the adoption of these processors and enables customers to meet today's critical design challenges.”

“AMCC is committed to providing the necessary tools that our customers need to jump start their packet processor evaluation and then their software development,” said Charlie Ashton, director of software at AMCC. “The Saguaro evaluation kit provides a low-cost, user-friendly environment to evaluate and benchmark the nP3705 processor as well as an effective platform for our customers to start the development of their products.”

The board is configured with the VxWorks® operating system from Wind River, running on the 440EP processor. Schematics and layout files for the board are provided so that customers can start their designs from a proven baseline. To further assist customers in accelerating their software development, an evaluation version of Wind River's Workbench development tools for PowerPC is included in the kit.

For network I/O, the board provides 14 10/100 Ethernet ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and two OC-12 ports. Other interfaces include a serial port and a USB port.

About AMCC's nP3705 Packet Processor

The nP3705 is an OC-24 packet processing and traffic management solution. In addition to high-performance packet processing and fine-grained traffic management, the nP3705 includes specialized coprocessors that perform classification, policing, and coherent database management for unparalleled line-rate performance. The nP3705 packet processor expands AMCC's packet processor technology to multi-service access applications.

Developed over several generations of traffic management and packet processor products, AMCC's packet processor technology unites the flexibility of the industry's highest performance packet processing nPcore with the most widely deployed and mature traffic management technology. This unique combination enables developers to achieve extremely fine-grained control of subscriber traffic, without impacting the ability to perform complex protocol inter-working at media speeds. The single-stage programming model dramatically simplifies software development and troubleshooting for fast time-to-market.

Pricing and Availability

AMCC's Saguaro evaluation kit is aggressively priced at $6500. The evaluation kit may be ordered from AMCC or any authorized distributor using part number EV-NP3705-KIT-01. For more information, please contact your local AMCC sales office at http://www.amcc.com/Sales/.

About AMCC

AMCC is a global leader in network and embedded PowerPC 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.