AMCC Applied Micro Circuits Corp.

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (NASDAQ:AMCC) today announced a significant expansion of its family of PowerPC� evaluation kits, with the addition of four new, low-cost, easy-to-use kits supporting the 440EPx, 440GRx, 440GX and 440SPe processors. These evaluation kits enable AMCC's customers to perform a quick and comprehensive evaluation of the processor of interest to them and then use the kit as a software development platform before their own target hardware is available. The four new evaluation kits announced today include the Sequoia 440EPx kit; the Rainier 440GRx kit; the Taishan 440GX kit; and the Katmai 440SPe kit. These new kits join the family of previously-introduced, easy-to-use AMCC evaluation kits, which include the Taihu 405EP kit; the Yosemite 440EP kit; and the Yellowstone 440GR kit. AMCC's extensive range of PowerPC evaluation kits is based on clear objectives to provide customers with easy-to-use platforms for processor evaluation and software development. Each of the kits can be set up in 15 minutes or less, enabled by a clear, step-by-step Getting Started guide and user-friendly configuration software. "The PowerPC 440 family of processors delivers cost-effective solutions with strong performance, software support, and integration that meet customers' needs," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at The Linley Group. "These evaluation kits will help new customers discover the benefits that these popular processors can deliver." �We�ve experienced tremendous success with the 405EP, 440GR and 440EP evaluation kits AMCC released last year,� said Mike Claassen, technology director for Avnet Electronics. �Our customer base has found these kits to be comprehensive, easy-to-use evaluation platforms for system designs. We are eager to begin using these latest evaluation kits from AMCC, which support the other members of the PowerPC 440 family." �We are excited to introduce these new evaluation kits as part of our overall goal of improving our customers' experience as they evaluate our processors and then start their own software development,� said Charlie Ashton, director of software at AMCC. �They retain the key concepts of our previously introduced kits, which have already been proven popular with customers, and add several important new features based on customer feedback and further AMCC innovation. The commonality of design and features among all of our kits provide an added benefit to our customers by making it easy to migrate from one AMCC PowerPC processor to another.� To assist with the processor evaluation phase, the Resource CD in each kit contains industry-standard benchmarks for use in processor performance analysis, such as TTCP, DBench, HINT, STREAM, Dhrystone, Whetstone and MPEG-4 as appropriate. These benchmarks allow customers to perform a detailed analysis of the processor�s performance using standard metrics without having to acquire and configure the benchmarks themselves. Once customers progress to the software development phase and before their own target hardware (prototype board) is available, the evaluation kits enable them to start their software development early, thereby accelerating their time-to-market. The Resource CD offers a wide range of sample applications that can be used as a starting-point for customers� software applications, as well as various utilities to aid in system configuration. The sample applications include a web server, telnet server, FTP server and example game, while the utilities provide a detailed configuration report on the board as well as utilities for setting the IP address and MAC ID. Also included is an example flash file system for persistent storage and a Linux root file system build environment. The kit software is provided to the user as source code as well as executables. To assist customers in selecting the optimum development environment for their PowerPC-based projects, software tools CDs from industry-leading suppliers such as DENX Software Engineering, Corelis and Green Hills Software, Inc. are included in the kits. Each evaluation kit includes a low-cost, custom-designed evaluation board, developed for AMCC by one of its strategic partners. The Sequoia 440EPx and Rainier 440GRx boards were developed by Embedded Planet, LLC; the Taishan 440GX board was developed by Beijing UD Technology Co., Ltd (UDTech); the Katmai 440SPe board was developed by Nimbus Data Systems. In each case, AMCC worked closely with the appropriate partner to define the hardware features most appropriate for evaluating the target PowerPC processor. AMCC's new evaluation kits are all configured with the Linux operating system (2.6 kernel), installed in flash along with U-Boot boot firmware, but also provide the flexibility to load and run other PowerPC-compatible embedded operating systems.�Schematics and layout files for the board are provided free-of-charge via AMCC's website so that customers can start their designs from a proven baseline.�The Linux code and U-Boot code (both source code and executables) are also provided free-of-charge via AMCC's website. Also included in the evaluation kits is kDiagnostics�, a suite of advanced processor and board diagnostics from Kozio, Inc. This diagnostics package, which can be licensed by customers, performs in-depth testing of the processor and evaluation board. Pricing and Availability AMCC�s new evaluation kits will be available with release dates starting in October and may be ordered from AMCC or any authorized distributor as follows: Sequoia 440EPx evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440EPx-01, suggested distributor resale $750 Rainier 440GRx evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440GRx-01, suggested distributor resale $750 Taishan 440GX evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440GX-01, suggested distributor resale $750 Katmai 440SPe evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440SPe-01, suggested distributor resale $2950 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. 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. THE POWERPC NAME AND LOGO ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF IBM CORPORATION AND USED UNDER LICENSE THEREFROM. ALL OTHER TRADEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (NASDAQ:AMCC) today announced a significant expansion of its family of PowerPC(R) evaluation kits, with the addition of four new, low-cost, easy-to-use kits supporting the 440EPx, 440GRx, 440GX and 440SPe processors. These evaluation kits enable AMCC's customers to perform a quick and comprehensive evaluation of the processor of interest to them and then use the kit as a software development platform before their own target hardware is available. The four new evaluation kits announced today include the Sequoia 440EPx kit; the Rainier 440GRx kit; the Taishan 440GX kit; and the Katmai 440SPe kit. These new kits join the family of previously-introduced, easy-to-use AMCC evaluation kits, which include the Taihu 405EP kit; the Yosemite 440EP kit; and the Yellowstone 440GR kit. AMCC's extensive range of PowerPC evaluation kits is based on clear objectives to provide customers with easy-to-use platforms for processor evaluation and software development. Each of the kits can be set up in 15 minutes or less, enabled by a clear, step-by-step Getting Started guide and user-friendly configuration software. "The PowerPC 440 family of processors delivers cost-effective solutions with strong performance, software support, and integration that meet customers' needs," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at The Linley Group. "These evaluation kits will help new customers discover the benefits that these popular processors can deliver." "We've experienced tremendous success with the 405EP, 440GR and 440EP evaluation kits AMCC released last year," said Mike Claassen, technology director for Avnet Electronics. "Our customer base has found these kits to be comprehensive, easy-to-use evaluation platforms for system designs. We are eager to begin using these latest evaluation kits from AMCC, which support the other members of the PowerPC 440 family." "We are excited to introduce these new evaluation kits as part of our overall goal of improving our customers' experience as they evaluate our processors and then start their own software development," said Charlie Ashton, director of software at AMCC. "They retain the key concepts of our previously introduced kits, which have already been proven popular with customers, and add several important new features based on customer feedback and further AMCC innovation. The commonality of design and features among all of our kits provide an added benefit to our customers by making it easy to migrate from one AMCC PowerPC processor to another." To assist with the processor evaluation phase, the Resource CD in each kit contains industry-standard benchmarks for use in processor performance analysis, such as TTCP, DBench, HINT, STREAM, Dhrystone, Whetstone and MPEG-4 as appropriate. These benchmarks allow customers to perform a detailed analysis of the processor's performance using standard metrics without having to acquire and configure the benchmarks themselves. Once customers progress to the software development phase and before their own target hardware (prototype board) is available, the evaluation kits enable them to start their software development early, thereby accelerating their time-to-market. The Resource CD offers a wide range of sample applications that can be used as a starting-point for customers' software applications, as well as various utilities to aid in system configuration. The sample applications include a web server, telnet server, FTP server and example game, while the utilities provide a detailed configuration report on the board as well as utilities for setting the IP address and MAC ID. Also included is an example flash file system for persistent storage and a Linux root file system build environment. The kit software is provided to the user as source code as well as executables. To assist customers in selecting the optimum development environment for their PowerPC-based projects, software tools CDs from industry-leading suppliers such as DENX Software Engineering, Corelis and Green Hills Software, Inc. are included in the kits. Each evaluation kit includes a low-cost, custom-designed evaluation board, developed for AMCC by one of its strategic partners. The Sequoia 440EPx and Rainier 440GRx boards were developed by Embedded Planet, LLC; the Taishan 440GX board was developed by Beijing UD Technology Co., Ltd (UDTech); the Katmai 440SPe board was developed by Nimbus Data Systems. In each case, AMCC worked closely with the appropriate partner to define the hardware features most appropriate for evaluating the target PowerPC processor. AMCC's new evaluation kits are all configured with the Linux operating system (2.6 kernel), installed in flash along with U-Boot boot firmware, but also provide the flexibility to load and run other PowerPC-compatible embedded operating systems. Schematics and layout files for the board are provided free-of-charge via AMCC's website so that customers can start their designs from a proven baseline. The Linux code and U-Boot code (both source code and executables) are also provided free-of-charge via AMCC's website. Also included in the evaluation kits is kDiagnostics(TM), a suite of advanced processor and board diagnostics from Kozio, Inc. This diagnostics package, which can be licensed by customers, performs in-depth testing of the processor and evaluation board. Pricing and Availability AMCC's new evaluation kits will be available with release dates starting in October and may be ordered from AMCC or any authorized distributor as follows: -- Sequoia 440EPx evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440EPx-01, suggested distributor resale $750 -- Rainier 440GRx evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440GRx-01, suggested distributor resale $750 -- Taishan 440GX evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440GX-01, suggested distributor resale $750 -- Katmai 440SPe evaluation kit: part number EV-KIT-440SPe-01, suggested distributor resale $2950 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. 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. THE POWERPC NAME AND LOGO ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF IBM CORPORATION AND USED UNDER LICENSE THEREFROM. ALL OTHER TRADEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.