AMCC Intros 10G PHY

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC)(NASDAQ:AMCC) today announced availability of the QT2025, a highly integrated physical layer IC (PHY) for 10GBASE-LRM applications. The 10GBASE-LRM standard targets the large base of installed multi-mode fiber(MMF) in corporate backbones and provides a cost-effective way to convert these links from speeds as low as 100Mbps to 10Gbps operation.

Over 90 percent of the installed fiber in enterprise backbones is legacy MMF. While the IEEE802.3aq 10GBase-LRM standard specifies 220m as the target fiber length, the QT2025 is designed to operate over 300m of FDDI-grade fiber which increases the backbone coverage by close to 20 percent.

"Intermediate-reach 10GE links are becoming critical, but the technology is still too expensive," said Mitch Kahn, AMCC Vice President of Marketing, Transport Product Line. "Robust and cost-effective LRM solutions will be key drivers of the adoption of 10GE in the corporate backbone and enterprise market. The QT2025 addresses these requirements with its high-performance, high-integration architecture."

Last month AMCC announced the QT2035S, a 10G Ethernet PHY designed for the emerging small form factor SFP+ module market. SFP+ is regarded as the most cost-effective and low-power form factor for high-speed enterprise connectivity. According to Kahn, "In the long term, enterprise switches and NIC cards will move towards solutions based on SFP+. However, an estimated 80 percent of installed equipment is still utilizing the larger XENPAK, XPAK and X2 modules, and this trend is expected to continue over the next 12 to18 months. Our new QT2025 device is optimized for this market."

The introduction of the QT2025 reinforces the commitment AMCC made to the enterprise Ethernet market when it recently acquired Quake Technologies.Already a world leader in processing, storage and transport products, the Quake acquisition positioned AMCC as the market-share leader in the 10G Ethernet PHY space.

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (Nasdaq: AMCC)