MACOM Completes AppliedMicro Acquisition

MACOM completed its previously announced acquisition of AppliedMicro.  MACOM plans to sell off AppliedMicro’s compute business.


John Croteau, MACOM’s President and Chief Executive Officer stated, “I am pleased to announce the completion of this transaction. AppliedMicro’s leadership in MACsec and 100G to 400G single-Lambda PAM4 positions MACOM as a preferred supplier to major Enterprise and Cloud Data Center providers, many of whom are adopting the technologies this year. MACOM will now be able to support customers with all of the requisite semiconductor content for optical networks—analog, photonic and mixed signal PHY—from the switch to fiber for long haul, metro, access, backhaul and data centers.”

http://www.macom.com

MACOM to Acquire AppliedMicro for $770 Million

Tuesday, November 22, 2016  AppliedMicro, MACOM  No Comments

MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings agreed to acquire Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AppliedMicro") for approximately $8.36 per share, consisting of $3.25 in cash and 0.1089 MACOM shares per share of AppliedMicro. The deal, which represents a 15.4% premium over AppliedMicro's closing price of $7.25 on November 18th, is valued at approximately $770 million. MACOM plans to divest AppliedMicro's non-strategic Compute business within the first 100 days of closing. The company said it is already talking to interested parties.

MACOM said the deal will accelerate its growth in optical technologies for Cloud Service Providers and Enterprise Network customers.

AppliedMicro, which supplies semiconductors for compute and computing in data centers, has approximately $165 million in TTM revenue (including the Compute business) and $82 million of cash and short-term investments. AppliedMicro's leadership PAM4 solutions based on FinFET technology and custom engagements with top-tier Data Center and service provider customers is expected to strengthen MACOM's competitive position with those customers

MACOM and AppliedMicro's pro forma combined TTM revenue was approximately $709 million including AppliedMicro's Compute business, or approximately $644 million excluding the Compute business
AppliedMicro's Connectivity business is highly complementary to MACOM's product portfolio, through the addition of market-leading OTN framers, MACsec Ethernet networking components and the industry's leading single-lambda PAM4 platform

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MACOM to Acquire AppliedMicro for $770 Million

MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings agreed to acquire Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AppliedMicro") for approximately $8.36 per share, consisting of $3.25 in cash and 0.1089 MACOM shares per share of AppliedMicro. The deal, which represents a 15.4% premium over AppliedMicro's closing price of $7.25 on November 18th, is valued at approximately $770 million. MACOM plans to divest AppliedMicro's non-strategic Compute business within the first 100 days of closing. The company said it is already talking to interested parties.

MACOM said the deal will accelerate its growth in optical technologies for Cloud Service Providers and Enterprise Network customers.

AppliedMicro, which supplies semiconductors for compute and computing in data centers, has approximately $165 million in TTM revenue (including the Compute business) and $82 million of cash and short-term investments. AppliedMicro's leadership PAM4 solutions based on FinFET technology and custom engagements with top-tier Data Center and service provider customers is expected to strengthen MACOM's competitive position with those customers

MACOM and AppliedMicro's pro forma combined TTM revenue was approximately $709 million including AppliedMicro's Compute business, or approximately $644 million excluding the Compute business
AppliedMicro's Connectivity business is highly complementary to MACOM's product portfolio, through the addition of market-leading OTN framers, MACsec Ethernet networking components and the industry's leading single-lambda PAM4 platform

Commenting on the transaction, John Croteau, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "This transaction will accelerate and expand MACOM's breakout opportunity in Enterprise and Cloud Data Centers. MACOM will now be able to provide all the requisite semiconductor content for optical networks - analog, photonic and PHY - from the switch to fiber for long haul, metro, access, backhaul and Data Center. AppliedMicro's 100G to 400G single-lambda PAM4 platform should perfectly complement MACOM's leadership in analog and photonic components for Data Centers.

"Notably, the IEEE recently recommended the adoption of AppliedMicro's single lambda PAM4 solution to be an industry standard for enterprise and Data Center connectivity, positioning this technology as the solution of choice going forward. Additionally, AppliedMicro's Connectivity business aligns well with MACOM's differentiated, high-growth business model, offering non-GAAP gross margins well in excess of MACOM's long term target operating model, long product life cycles, and sticky customer relationships."

"This is an exciting day for AppliedMicro, and we are pleased to be joining forces with MACOM. The transaction affirms the value that our employees have created and provides a strong path forward for our Connectivity business while delivering AppliedMicro stockholders a robust premium," said Paramesh Gopi, President and CEO, AppliedMicro. "This transaction will create an industry powerhouse with the scale, deep customer relationships, innovative technology, and enabling products that will help deliver explosive growth in Enterprise and Cloud Data Centers. In addition, this agreement provides a promising path forward for the Compute business, which is in the process of bringing AppliedMicro's highly-competitive third-generation X-Gene processor to market. X-Gene is well-positioned to address the large opportunity for mainstream server processors with its proven high performance cores, scalable interconnect and high per socket memory capabilities."

http://ir.macom.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1000507

• M/A-COM Technology Solutions acquired Mindspeed in 2013 for $270 million.
• M/A-COM acquired Bin Optics in 2014 for $230 million for its Indium Phosphide laser technology.

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AppliedMicro Announces X-Weave

AppliedMicro introduced its new family of X-Weave data center connectivity chipsets, spanning 100 Gbps to 240 Gbps with integrated analog I/O for a variety of optical and copper connectivity interfaces.

The X-Weave product family is specifically designed to meet the unique needs of public cloud, private cloud, and enterprise data centers. The idea is span rack and cluster resources within the data center, and then to seamlessly connect multiple data centers together over DWDM optical links.

The first product in the family is X12: AppliedMicro's 28 nanometer, 120G, 12-port Ethernet/OTN "smart PHY" with framer, mapper, and multi protocol DSP-based forward-error correction.

"X-Weave was co-created with top tier service provider and data center customers and uniquely leverages our established position in the service provider market to address the rapidly growing data center market. The convergence of X-Gene™ and X-Weave will offer a full portfolio of components for the new cloud infrastructure and will position us well to execute on our growth strategy," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, AppliedMicro's President and CEO.

http://www.appliedmicro.com

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AppliedMicro Reports Stronger Financial Results

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AppliedMicro) reported Q1 FY2014 net revenues of $54.1 million, down 4.0% sequentially and up 31% year over year.

Q1 FY2014 non-GAAP EPS was $0.02 per diluted share on net income of $1.4 million, compared to $0.00 per diluted share on net income of $0.1 million, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013.

The company confirmed that its X-Gene Server on a Chip product continues to be on track for commercial production as indicated by key customers' systems-development commitments.

"We had an excellent quarter, where we had strength in our base business and also continued to make significant progress towards getting our revolutionary and category defining X-Gene server platforms to market," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Shiva Natarajan, interim Chief Financial Officer, commented, "We had a great quarter where we achieved better than expected non-GAAP results. We expect to continue to execute solidly as we position ourselves for the growth we anticipate in the future".

http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Intros Standalone OTN Processor with Encryption

AppliedMicro introduced a standalone OTN processor that can be used to enable 10 x 10G line cards for OTN cross connect and Packet-Optical Transport System (P-OTS) applications.

The new TPO215 processor delivers advanced framing, mapping and multiplexing, while supporting 10 x 10G channels for a total capacity of 100G.  The device, which is part of the company's portfolio of "SoftSilicon" OTN processors, makes use of the partial reconfiguration function of Altera's Stratix V field-programmable gate array (FPGA) silicon in a way that is completely seamless to the user and effectively quadruples the size of the silicon.

The TPO215 provides optical data unit (ODU) mapping. The device can map any 8-10G client signal to ODUflex/ODU2, in compliance with all ITU standardized mapping methods. The device can also perform hierarchical (de)multiplexing between ODU2 and ODU0/ODU1/ODUflex containers.

In addition, AppliedMicro noted that its TPO125 device also features OTNsec encryption, a new security feature developed by AppliedMicro to ensure comprehensive security during transport of information over "shared" networks. Unlike traditional encryption methods that only encrypt packets or client payloads, OTNsec security encrypts the entire container for transport across an OTN network and provides secure transport of any OTN client, including Fibre Channel, SONET and Ethernet.

http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Cites Progress in ARM 64-bit Development

AppliedMicro reported net revenues of $51.7 million for the quarter ending 31-Dec-2012, up approximately 12% sequentially and down approximately 8% year over year. There was a GAAP net loss was $71.6 million or $(1.08) per share compared to net loss of $21.6 million or $(0.33) per share for the previous quarter.

AppliedMicro also reported that performance simulations of its ARM 64-Bit X-Gene processor have significantly exceeded the company's expectations and resulted in an increase in the range of its estimated milestone-based payments under the Veloce merger agreement. The purchase price is now estimated to be in the range of $117 to $178.5 million, depending upon the achievement of multiple product development cycles and technical performance results.

"In the third quarter we believe we made giant strides in our product development efforts by taping out our 40nm ARM 64-Bit X-Gene server on a chip. We also taped out a test chip for our upcoming 28nm product in January. While we await final benchmarks from the actual silicon, the results from highly correlated simulations indicate that the 40nm chip performance may far exceed our original expectations. In fact, we believe the networking performance of the chip suggests that we may be able to further penetrate into Enterprise class solutions. I am also very pleased with the improvements in our base business, reflected in continued quarter over quarter revenue growth," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Bob Gargus, Chief Financial Officer commented, "While we are very excited with the milestones in our ARM 64-bit product strategy, we also had a very solid quarter Company-wide and beat expectations. We feel we are making great progress towards our goal of attaining break even on a non-GAAP basis for the March quarter."

http://www.apm.com

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Volex Acquires AppliedMicro Active Optical

Volex has acquired active optical technology from AppliedMicro for approximately US$2 million. Under the deal, AppliedMicro has agreed to a five-year non-compete in connection with the marketing and sale of active optical cables, transceivers, modules and related assemblies. The companies also agreed to share ownership of the associated active optical patent portfolio, allowing each company to continue development of the technologies, and forming the basis for the two companies to collaborate on next-generation optical interconnect products and solutions.

"We chose Volex to take the platform forward due to its strong focus on the active optical cable space and extensive customer relationships in data-center markets," said George Jones, vice president of marketing and business development for connectivity solutions at AppliedMicro.

Volex said the acquisition supports its entry into the emerging multi-billion dollar optical interconnect market for high-speed data applications in data center and telecommunications, as well as the consumer, healthcare and industrial markets.

Ray Walsh, Volex CEO, stated: "Our data-center and telecommunications customers have been asking for a cost-effective, high-speed optical solution to replace legacy copper interconnects."

http://www.apm.com/
http://www.volex.com/

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ARM, Red Hat and AppliedMicro Collaborate on 64-Bit Cloud Server

ARM, Red Hat and Applied Micro announced a collaboration to develop a 64-bit server for cloud computing, data centers and enterprises.

AppliedMicro X-Gene Server on a Chip, which is based on the  ARMv8 architecture, is now running Red Hat's Fedora Linux in the lab.

“We have a multi-year history in the ARM space, and already have our community-powered Fedora Linux distribution running on AppliedMicro hardware in our labs,” said Jon Masters, Chief ARM Architect at Red Hat. “Red Hat is collaborating with AppliedMicro to enable support for ARM's 64-bit ARMv8 architecture used in the upcoming X-Gene Server-on-Chip designs. We aim to have a remix of Fedora 19 available in time to support the roll out of that platform.”

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AppliedMicro Unveils World’s Fastest CMOS Transmitter ICs for 100Gbps

AppliedMicro a CMOS transmitter chip that paves the way for wide-scale deployment in 100G DWDM Optical Transport Networks (OTN) as operators increasingly seek higher bandwidth solutions and greater network density.


AppliedMicro’s S28032 DQPSK Mux chips supports line rates up to 31.8Gbps per channel, which allows for 7%, 15% or 20% forward error correction (FEC) overhead. The device is currently sampling with AppliedMicro's early access partners, who are passing traffic error-free in the lab in preparation for field trials. The company's expect carriers and network operators will see next generation DWDM systems featuring the S28032 early in 2013.


"Our previously announced Gearbox product set the bar for performance in 100GBASE-LR4 applications, supporting ODB (optical duo-binary) pre-coding for metro networks," said George Jones, Vice President of Connectivity Solutions at APM. “Our new S28032 extends AppliedMicro’s leadership position in 100G CMOS PHY products to the DWDM network for metro, regional and long-haul 100Gbps applications."

http://www.appliedmicro.com

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AppliedMicro Ships 2 Millionth 10G OTN Port

The market for Optical Transport Network (OTN) systems is accelerating. AppliedMicro announced a milestone -- the shipment of two million 10G OTN ports to network equipment suppliers. The company reached the milestone less than 18 months after it achieved one million 10G OTN port shipments on March 7, 2011.


AppliedMicro is now shipping its 4th generation family and its OTN products include Rubicon, Yahara, Pemaquid, PQx and its 100Gbps SoftSilicon OTN Processors.


“The demand for 10G OTN is growing at a healthy rate, creating a sustainable market where technology advances at the same pace,�? said Francesco Caggioni, AppliedMicro’s Director of Strategic Marketing. “The milestone of two million OTN ports shipped allows AppliedMicro to maintain its leadership in this market. As demand remains high for our 10-Gigabit solutions in both the transponder and LAN/WAN/OTN Carrier Ethernet markets, our 40G and 100G OTN solutions are now in customer labs and early field deployment will soon expand our company’s footprint. Interestingly, the rapid growth of 10G OTN ports has been bolstered by its increased use in edge routers, a market that AppliedMicro pioneered more than 4 years ago.�?

• In February 2012, AppliedMicro announced the industry's first standard Optical Transport Network (OTN) multiplexer to enable 100 Gbps OTU4 linecards. The new TPO415/C415 device facilitates the switching of any client and any rate traffic in Terabit-per-second Packet-Optical Transport Systems (P-OTS). The TPO415/C415 contains a flexible OTU4 multiplexer with support of any size and combination of ODU0/1/2/3/4 and ODUflex containers. The device offers a 100G capacity ODU Segmentation And Reassembly (SAR) engine compliant with OIF-IA standards. It also offers a 100G capacity ODUk/ODUflex packet mapper for support of hybrid OTN and packet switching. Additionally, an advanced software Application Programming Interface provides large efficiency for software integration AppliedMicro said these capabilities will enable a new generation of terabit-class Packet Optical systems which leverage the new OTN networking layer and replace SONET/SDH to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the Internet by several orders of magnitude. In addition to IP transport, the new OTN layer will transport more specialized services such as Fibre Channel and video and allow for migration away from old SONET/SDH networks.

http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Advances its X-Gene "Server-on-a-Chip"

AppliedMicro is making progress on "X-Gene", its forthcoming "Server-on-a-Chip" based on 64-bit ARM technology. X-Gene, which the company first announced last October, is being designed to power next-generation cloud-computing data centers and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).

AppliedMicro is now demonstrating an open source Apache Web Server running on an FPGA implementation of X-Gene. This development milestone represents the first 64-bit ARM development vehicle for the ecosystem community that will aid in the acceleration of server system development. The current implementation enables OEMs, ODMs, Cloud Service Providers, Independent Software Vendors and other development partners to conduct early stage performance benchmarking and software development in parallel with silicon development.


AppliedMicro has previously said that it expects to sample X-Gene is later half of 2012.

Other hardware highlights include:

• Multi-core ARM v8 running SMP with L1, L2, and L3 Caches


• System memory to host Linux and other server applications


• Coherent fabric, SOC peripherals and associated bridges


• The platform is capable of running a full LAMP software stack featuring open-source Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Develops Hybrid OTN Switching for 100G Linecards

AppliedMicro is preparing to release the industry's first standard Optical Transport Network (OTN) multiplexer to enable 100 Gbps OTU4 linecards. The new TPO415/C415 device facilitates the switching of any client and any rate traffic in Terabit-per-second Packet-Optical Transport Systems (P-OTS).


The TPO415/C415 contains a flexible OTU4 multiplexer with support of any size and combination of ODU0/1/2/3/4 and ODUflex containers. The device offers a 100G capacity ODU Segmentation And Reassembly (SAR) engine compliant with OIF-IA standards. It also offers a 100G capacity ODUk/ODUflex packet mapper for support of hybrid OTN and packet switching. Additionally, an advanced software Application Programming Interface provides large efficiency for software integration.


AppliedMicro said these capabilities will enable a new generation of terabit-class Packet Optical systems which leverage the new OTN networking layer and replace SONET/SDH to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the Internet by several orders of magnitude. In addition to IP transport, the new OTN layer will transport more specialized services such as Fibre Channel and video and allow for migration away from old SONET/SDH networks.


"AppliedMicro is first to market with a standard 100G multiplexer for hybrid OTN and packet switching systems," said Lars Pedersen, Chief Technology Officer of AppliedMicro TPACK A/S. "TPO415/C415 is future-proof because it is adaptable in meeting ever-changing customer requirements and evolving industry standards. It is supplied with the industry's most advanced Applications Programming Interface and a hardware reference design is available to help network system developers with rapid deployment of 100G systems. AppliedMicro provides the safest path to 100G P-OTS systems with advanced technology backed by our market-leading presence and experience."


AppliedMicro will demonstrate the 100G multiplexer during the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) next week in Los Angeles.
http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Upgrades OTN Multiplexer for High Capacity P-OTS

AppliedMicro introduced an OTU2 Add-Drop multiplexer with 16 clients in one device and is designed to support Terabit-per-second switching capacity in Packet-Optical Transport Systems (P-OTS).


The new TPO134, which builds on the company's portfolio of optical framers and mappers, expands ODU cross-connect capacity to 80 Gigabit-per-second with two devices, while doubling the density for IP packet aggregation and TDM services.


AppliedMicro’s TPO134 offers support for ODU0 and ODUflex and all standardized client mappings. It is also adaptable to future new client mapping and monitoring requirements. An advanced software Application Programming Interface (API) makes integration into target systems efficient and allows for smooth migration of solutions over time.


The TPO134 joins AppliedMicro’s TPO124/114 add-drop multiplexers in addressing OTN aggregation as network providers and transport system vendors introduce a new OTN networking layer to replace SONET/SDH for greater capacity and efficiency of the Internet. The new layer not only transports IP services, but allows specialized Fibre Channel and video services as well as migration away from older SONET/SDH networks.


The TPO134 Add-Drop multiplexer is available now and shipping to customers this quarter.


"AppliedMicro leads the world in innovative technology for OTN transport and aggregation of packet and TDM services,�? said Lars Pedersen, Chief Technology Officer of AppliedMicro TPACK A/S. "Today we are announcing the expansion of our leadership position with the TPO134, which doubles the capacity and density of our TPO114/124 solutions. We provide our customers with a safe and stable migration path to future standards and market requirements. Additionally, AppliedMicro’s advanced software API makes integration into target systems efficient and allows for smooth migration of solutions as standards change and system requirements evolve."http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Begins Shipping First 100G Transponder/Muxponder for OTN

AppliedMicro has begun commercial shipments of the first standard 100 Gbps transponder/muxponder solutions for Optical Transport Networks (OTN) and data centers. The design was unveiled a year ago and since then has passed all interoperability tests before reaching the initial stages of deployment in 100G carrier and data center networks.


AppliedMicro said its 100G transponder/muxponder is capable of multiplexing any combination of 10G and 40G client signals into a 100G OTN signal (OTU4). Specifically, the 100G Muxponder supports any combination of signals from 10G and 40G Ethernet to legacy OC192/OC768 SONET/SDH, as well as 8G and 10G Fibre Channel.


This provides network operators tremendous flexibility in filling new 100G pipes in their networks. Additionally, these 100G OTN pipes are being deployed between high capacity data centers where significant growth is driving demand for higher speed connections. As a result, the solution can carry both data and storage traffic efficiently and can be used for file and backup synchronization between large data centers. It also interoperates with all major forward error correction (FEC) schemes in long-haul optical network architectures.


"AppliedMicro's 100G transponder/muxponder reference design provides a common software API for both its SoftSilicon and ASSP solutions, making it efficient to integrate with system software of the host platform or line card," said Lars Pedersen, Chief Technology Officer of AppliedMicro TPACK A/S. "System design and maintenance efforts for 100G platforms are greatly simplified and streamlined with a common API, and it provides software investment protection for future upgrades as AppliedMicro's highly integrated silicon devices come to market offering even greater cost-reduction potential."


Reference designs and API for the 100G transponder/muxponder are now available.
http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Samples 28.1 Gbps CMOS PHY for 100GBASE-LR4

AppliedMicro has begun sampling the world's fastest CMOS PHY at 28.1Gbps. The new S28010 Gearbox integrated circuit is designed for next generation CFP optical modules compliant with 100GBASE-LR4, 100GBASE-ER4 and OTU4.4 standards, supporting optical connection speeds from 10Gbps to 100Gbps for high-end switching and routing equipment.


Until now, industry adoption efforts have been slowed by high-cost, power-hungry SiGe or FPGA integrated circuits that are limited and unable to provide transport-quality performance and reliability.


AppliedMicro said its 28010 Gearbox delivers SiGe-like performance in a reliable, low-power CMOS process and enables system designs with the flexibility to transport Ethernet, Fibre Channel and Optical Transport Network traffic.


AppliedMicro will demonstrate the S28010 Gearbox at OFC/NFOEC 2012 from March 6-8 in Los Angeles.


“Data center and access network developers have been eager for 100GBASE-R4 Gearbox devices that lower power and cost while improving reliability and availability,�? said George Jones, Vice President of AppliedMicro’s Transport Business Unit. “The S28010 is designed to allow module vendors to supply CFP-based solutions that support Ethernet, Fibre-channel and Optical Transport Networks using a single chip, exceeding jitter requirements in the process. The 28Gbps interface contains enhanced equalization for line-card compatibility with CFP2 and potentially CFP4 modules when they become available. The S28010 also integrates ODB precoding and decoding to support metro applications."


AppliedMicro’s Gearbox translates the 10-lane, 10Gbps CAUI electrical interface to 4-lanes operating from 25.7 up to 28.1 Gbps. It is compliant with IEEE802.3ba, the CFP MSA and OIF-28G-SR standards. The fully-integrated single-chip solution reduces module bill of materials and with power consumption below 4 watts, it is less than 50 percent of comparable 2-chip BiCMOS solutions. The result is reduced system heat and lower operational costs without compromising performance.
http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro Delivers Embedded Processor for 802.11ac Wireless Access Points

AppliedMicro introduced its new Catalina APM86491 embedded System-on-a-Chip (SoC) processor for next generation IEEE 802.11ac wireless access points with an enterprise-class QoS engine, TCP offload engines, a 4 Gbps packet classification engine and application aware offloads. These advanced capabilities will be essential in supporting the new class of all-in-one home appliances that serve as a router, wireless access point and networked storage drive.


Catalina’s highly integrated design supports a variety of high speed interfaces within the device. Two PCI-Express 2.0 interfaces support dual concurrent 802.11ac radio devices; two SATA interfaces support internal storage connectivity and two USB 3.0 ports - one host and one OTG - provide external storage connectivity. Additionally, four Gigabit Ethernet ports are available for a variety of network configurations.


AppliedMicro said this combination enables next generation 802.11ac wireless access points to be integrated into all-in-one network appliances. Catalina APM86491 is the industry’s first embedded processor equipped to handle the bandwidth requirements of this new class of consumer home network systems.


AppliedMicro also offers the industry’s first integrated software programmable co-processor within the APM86491 Catalina SoC for application specific customizable offloads. Performance is also provided by Catalina’s 1 GHz Power Architecture 465 CPU featuring a dual issue, out-of-order processor core. Catalina features an advanced hardware-based QoS engine with support for DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) for prioritization of real-time and latency sensitive traffic. The SoC leverages its queue manager and classifier to perform bandwidth management with 256 queues, 1024 search filters, and 128 traffic policers and shapers. This provides a richer video experience while voice and web traffic remain unaffected by multiple simultaneous streams and applications.


Catalina provides 64-byte L2 bridging performance with a classifier offload equal to 762Mbps, delivers 100 percent Ethernet line rate performance with no CPU utilization. IP forwarding 64-byte performance with classifier offload delivers 621Mbps at 100 percent CPU utilization. IP forwarding 1500-byte performance with classifier offload delivers 986Mbps at zero percent CPU utilization. Catalina’s Robocopy NAS writes equal 110 Megabytes per second (MBps) at 80 percent CPU utilization. Iometer NAS writes are 110 MBps at 35 percent CPU utilization and Iometer NAS reads are 108 MBps at 40 percent CPU utilization.


“Current integrated radio and processor SoC solutions are unable to deliver the performance demanded by IEEE 802.11ac base systems, providing Catalina with unique positioning in this market. The latest WLAN standard offers longer range and improved wall penetration for better wireless network service. Additionally, 802.11ac supports more users and higher throughput to enable a richer media experience,�? said Vinay Ravuri, Vice President and General Manager of the Embedded Processor Business Unit of AppliedMicro. “In order to build next-generation systems, it is essential to have a CPU with the throughput that delivers a high quality video streaming experience and support for multiple simultaneous streams. Catalina’s SLIMpro™ co-processor, TCP offload engines for both transmit and receive, queue manager, classifier and security engine divert CPU intensive tasks into hardware to deliver the industry’s best throughput performance for next-generation wireless access point designs.�?http://www.apm.com

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Fast Packet Processing -- Appliances Integrate Cloud Services

Connectivity to the cloud will become an essential element in home services and associated gateway and NAS appliances. Vinay Ravuri, Vice President and General Manager of the Processor Business Unit at AppliedMicro. http://www.apm.com/

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AppliedMicro Positions 64-bit ARM "X-Gene" for Next Gen Infrastructure

AppliedMicro introduced its "X-Gene" 64-bit, multi-core ARM architecture for next-generation infrastructure, including cloud computing, wireless infrastructure, enterprise networking, storage and security applications.


The new X-Gene multi-core processors leverage high-performance ARMv8 compliant cores operating at up to 3.0 GHz and are designed for full CPU and I/O virtualization in next generation of cloud computing.


AppliedMicro said its server-on-a-chip will combine multiple ARMv8 compliant 64-bit cores and a high-performance terabit coherent fabric with on-chip 10-Gigabit LAN, storage and WAN physical layer IP. It will also feature a 100-Gigabit per second inter socket communications interface to extend coherency to multi-chip configurations. The SoC design uses server-class dynamic power management during the idle state to achieve an unprecedented level of standby power of less than 300mW. The company expects first samples in the second half of 2012.


AppliedMicro also confirmed TSMC as its fab partner.


"The current growth trajectory of data centers, driven by the viral explosion of social media and cloud computing applications, will continue to accelerate," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, President and CEO of AppliedMicro. "In offering the world's first 64-bit ARM architecture processor, we harmonize the network with cloud computing and environmental responsibility. Our next-generation of multicore SoCs will bring in a new era of energy efficient performance that doesn't break the bank on a limited power supply. In doing so, AppliedMicro becomes a more complete cloud computing technology provider for one of the hottest growth drivers in the industry." http://www.apm.com

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OTN Hits its Stride

Optical Transport Network (OTN) has grown up to become a true network layer technology, allowing different signals to be muxed into different layers. The technology is hitting new milestones in mainstream deployments as it moves up to 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps capabilities. Presented by Francesco Caggioni, Director of Strategic Marketing, AppliedMicro. http://www.apm.com

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AppliedMicro's Home Networking Chip Offers USB 3.0, SATA-II, QoS, Support for 802.11ac

AppliedMicro introduced a high-performance System-on-a-Chip (SoC) featuring a 1.2GHz PowerPC 465 processing core for advanced Network Attached Storage (NAS), Wireless Access Point (WAP) and media gateway systems for the connected home market.



AppliedMicro's APM86491 offers two USB 3.0 ports, two PCI Express Gen 2 ports, up to two SATA-II ports and two 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports on a single device. It supports line-rate throughput simultaneously on all high-speed interfaces, and it also supports next-generation 802.11ac and advanced 802.11n WLAN compatibility.



AppliedMicro is also providing a hardware-based Queue Manager with Traffic Manager (QM/TM). The QM/TM implements QoS to enable a richer video experience while unaffecting voice and web traffic. The device also implements inline packet acceleration technologies such as statefull TCP offload, hardware NAT and security features. These offloads enable applications such as firewalls, next-generation wireless access points and other connected home appliances such as NAS platforms.



Samples of AppliedMicro's APM86491 will be available in the third quarter and high-volume production pricing is under $20.http://www.apm.com

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