AMCC Intros Sonet Chips for SAN

SAN DIEGO -- Industry-leader Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (Nasdaq:AMCC - News) today announced the VOLTA family of OC-48/STM-16 and OC-192/STM-64 multi-protocol mappers that will utilize Virtual Concatenation (VC) and Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) for the optimized transport of Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and Storage Area Network (SAN) protocols over SONET/SDH Metropolitan networks.

Building on AMCC's field-proven framer and mapper expertise, the VOLTA family will consist of the 2.5Gbps VOLTA 48 (S4814) and 10Gbps VOLTA 192 (S19225) devices, collapses the functionality that is implemented today using several Application Specific Standard Products (ASSP) or Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Field Programmable Grid Arrays (FPGA) and discrete serial transceivers into a single device, achieving at least four times the density available in comparable solutions. This complete line card on-a-chip integrates complex digital logic and transceiver functionality without compromising flexibility. Each one of VOLTA's 10 multi-rate client interfaces can operate "Any Service on Any Port (ASAP) at Any Time." In addition, these client interfaces support the widest spectrum of enterprise protocols ever implemented in a single device, including Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel FC-100 and FC-200, Enterprise Systems Connection (ESCON), Fibre Connection (FICON) and Digital Video Broadcast (DVB), which can be mapped onto SONET/SDH using standards-compliant VC and GFP. This impressive level of integration significantly reduces the complexity and associated R&D costs of system design, removing the need to integrate discrete devices from different vendors that were not optimized to work together. Additionally, the VOLTA achieves a discontinuity in systems' cost-per-port that removes obstacles to the volume deployment of data interfaces in Metropolitan network equipment. The VOLTA devices are targeted to Add-Drop Multiplexer (ADM), Multi-Service Provisioning Platforms and DWDM equipment deployed in Metropolitan (MAN) and Wide Area Networks (WANs). Earlier solutions used dedicated wavelengths to transport enterprise protocols in their native forms over MANs and restrained connectivity within DWDM islands. VOLTA's ability to transport a broad range of Enterprise protocols over channelized SONET/SDH signals allows for the multiplexing of several client signals into a single wavelength and removes barriers between pure DWDM, wavelength-based networks and SONET/SDH networks. This results in dramatically increased end-to-end connectivity over MANs and WANs and dramatically improves wavelength utilization. "Ethernet and SAN services over the Wide Area Network is an important revenue opportunity for Service Providers with significant growth prospects. We are leveraging our proven SONET/SDH and data transport expertise to deliver a turn-key solution to our customers. We are accomplishing the difficult task of merging enterprise data protocols and next-generation, standards-compliant SONET/SDH technology in our devices," said John LoMedico, vice president of marketing for AMCC Framer-Layer product division. "Volta's level of integration means no glue or complex analog design are required, saving our customers valuable R&D resources. The end result is an unprecedented cost-per-port with a minimized time-to-revenue for our customers and our customers' customers." Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC)