SAN DIEGO -- Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (Nasdaq: AMCC) today announced that William Bendush, the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer, will retire and be succeeded by Stephen Smith, AMCC's vice president, controller and chief accounting officer. Mr. Smith will assume his new position effective April 1, 2003, at the beginning of AMCC's new fiscal year. Mr. Bendush will continue as an AMCC employee and advisor through the end of the calendar year. "Since joining AMCC in 1999, Bill has been an exceptional CFO. His strong financial and operational expertise made him an integral player in managing AMCC over the last several years. On behalf of the entire company and the board of directors, I want to extend our gratitude to Bill for his service and leadership. I look forward to continuing to work with him this year and wish him well as he enters retirement," stated Dave Rickey, president, chairman and chief executive officer of AMCC. "Steve's extensive finance experience and his knowledge of AMCC will make for a smooth transition as he takes on the role of CFO. I anticipate that Steve will continue to build upon his accomplishments of the past four years and make a great contribution to the AMCC team in this new position." Mr. Smith joined AMCC in 1999 as vice president of business development and was appointed to the position of vice president, controller in 2001. Previously, Mr. Smith held top-level management positions as director of a key strategic business unit and director of finance at ST Microelectronics. Mr. Smith has also held the post of vice president of finance at Vixel Corporation, in addition to a number of financial management positions in the Semiconductor Components Group at Northern Telecom, now known as Nortel Networks. Mr. Smith holds a B.S. degree from Arizona State University. Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC)