PMC-Sierra Announces Production Release of CHESS III and CHESS Wideband Chip Sets for Carrier Class SONET/SDH Metro Transport Equipment

Business Wire, June 6, 2005

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ:PMCS) today announced the production release of the CHESS(TM) III and CHESS(TM) Wideband chip sets for next-generation Multi Service Provisioning Platforms (MSPPs) and digital cross connects. PMC-Sierra's CHESS III and CHESS Wideband products have achieved over one hundred design wins with leading manufacturers around the world. Major equipment manufacturers such as Alcatel, Lucent, ZTE, and many others use PMC-Sierra's solutions to enable next-generation metro transport equipment.

The highly integrated CHESS III and CHESS Wideband chip sets --

--Enable Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to design highly integrated, scalable metro transport solutions with reduced power, cost and complexity

--Improve fiber efficiency and reduce carrier deployment and operational costs for Service Providers by distributing grooming capabilities into every network element

CHESS III chip set for aggregating, grooming, and transporting 2.5Gbps and 10Gbps metro services

CHESS III is the foundation chip set used to build the new generation of metro transport equipment. It offers a wide range of STS-1/AU-3 cross-connect solutions as well as highly integrated framer solutions.

CHESS III introduced leading edge technology innovations including --

--Message Assisted Protection Switching (MAPS)

--Scalable single stage cross-connect solutions using bit-slicing

--Best In Class TFI-5 high speed serial backplane technology, Rate Agile Serial I/O (RASIO(TM))

The CHESS III chip set consists of the following devices:

TSE-Nx160 - 64-port cross-connect device that enables single stage non-blocking cross-connects to scale from 160 Gbps to 640 Gbps

TSE 240 - 96-port cross-connect device that reduces the software complexity of automatic protection switching using MAPS(TM) technology

TSE 120 - 74-port cross-connect device optimized for lower bandwidth, lower cost applications

ARROW-2x192 - highly integrated channelized 20Gbps framer that supports 8 ports of OC-48/STM-16 or 2 ports of OC-192/STM-64

ARROW-1x192 - highly integrated channelized 10Gbps framer that supports 4 ports of OC-48/STM-16 or 1 port of OC-192/STM-64

CHESS Wideband chip set for VT/TU grooming

The CHESS Wideband chip set is a highly integrated VT/TU grooming solution that enables cost-effective in-service upgrades to MSPPs, digital cross-connect systems and Add/Drop Multiplexers. The chip set enables Service providers to cost-effectively manage both new 10/100 Ethernet services and existing T1/E1 services at the VT/TU granularity.

The CHESS Wideband chip set consists of the following devices:

WSE 40 - 18-port wideband cross-connect, device that reduces the software complexity of automatic protection switching using MAPS(TM) technology

WSE 20 - 10-port wideband cross-connect device optimized for lower bandwidth, lower cost applications

TUPP 9953 - SONET/SDH tributary unit payload processor for 9953 Mbit/s

Broad Portfolio Enables True Multi-Service Provisioning Platforms (MSPPs)

To improve the carrier networks' underlying structure and economics, MSPPs must offer a complete set of Time-Division-Multiplexers (TDMs) -- OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4, DS3/T3/E3, T1/E1 and new Ethernet client interfaces. PMC-Sierra's extensive transport product family enables complete solutions and accelerates time to market.

TBS-2488 - Multi-rate Telecom Backplane SERDES for 622 Mbit/s and 2.5 Gbit/s Interconnect

ARROW 8xFE - 8-port 10/100 Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH mapper into OC-12/STM-4

ARROW 24xFE - 24-port 10/100 Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH mapper into OC-48/STM-16

ARROW 2xGE - 2-port Gigabit Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH mapper into OC-48/STM-16

ARROW 622 - Integrated Metro Access and Transport Framer for 622 Mbit/s

ARROW 155 - Integrated Metro Access and Transport Framer for 155 Mbit/s

TEMAP(TM) 28 - High Density 28/21 Channel VT/TU Mapper and M13 Multiplexer

TEMAP(TM) 84 - High Density 84/63 Channel VT/TU Mapper and M13 Multiplexer

ARROW 12xETEC - 12-Channel E3/DS3/STS-1E Framer SONET/SDH Mapper/Demapper

Pricing, Availability, and Customer Support

All devices are now available in production quantities. Short form datasheets are available on PMC-Sierra's web site at www.pmc-sierra.com/products. For more information about PMC-Sierra's broad family of metro transport solutions, visit www.pmc-sierra.com/networking. For documentation and pricing, contact a PMC-Sierra sales representative at www.pmc-sierra.com/contactsales.

About PMC-Sierra

PMC-Sierra(TM) is a leading provider of high speed broadband communications and storage semiconductors and MIPS-Powered(TM) processors for Enterprise, Access, Metro Optical Transport, Storage Area Networking and Wireless network equipment. The company offers worldwide technical and sales support, including a network of offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the PMCS symbol and is included in the S&P 500 Index. For more information, visit www.pmc-sierra.com.