AMCC Unveils Storage Technology Roadmap, Affirms Commitment to PCI Express, RAID 6 and SAS to Further Enhance Performance for RAID Controllers

Business Wire, May 16, 2006

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- First Roadmap Deliverable, PCI Express-Based 3ware 9590SE SATA II RAID Controller, Builds Bridge to Future of Serial Storage

E[acute accent]Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) (Nasdaq:AMCC) today announced its storage technology roadmap for the year, including its plans for adopting PCI Express, RAID 6, Serial-attached SCSI (SAS), and other performance-enhancing storage technologies. As a first roadmap deliverable, AMCC today released the 3ware(R) 9590SE, an extension of its popular 9550SX family of 3Gb/s SATA II RAID controllers. E[acute accent]The 3ware 9590SE includes PCI Express support, and is based on AMCC's StorSwitch(TM) switched-fabric architecture, a technology that offloads data I/O in the storage subsystem to significantly improve performance, availability and scalability, evidenced by throughput in excess of 800MB/sec RAID 5 reads. As part of its roadmap, AMCC plans to unveil a significant upgrade to its StorSwitch architecture later this year, as well as support for native PCI Express and RAID 6. E[acute accent]"We are taking a bold step in sharing our roadmap, but we feel it is important for our existing and potential customers to understand our product direction as they plan their system designs," said Barbara Murphy, vice president and general manager, AMCC. "Our plans for introducing new storage technologies, including PCI Express and RAID 6, and the evolution of our StorSwitch architecture, all set the stage for our vision for SAS as an infrastructure for high performance SATA solutions." E[acute accent]"AMCC's commitment to serial technologies and advanced RAID features like RAID 6 aligns well with our technology roadmap plans," said Erik Logan, chief technology officer of Seattle-based Pogo Linux Inc. "Our customers are demanding the performance enhancements afforded by PCI Express, and are starting to ask questions about the benefits of RAID 6. While SAS has been a subject of discussion for some time now, we see the technology becoming real later this year." E[acute accent]"AMCC is taking a sensible yet aggressive approach to improving storage network performance and data protection for its customers," said Greg Schulz, founder and storage consultant for StorageIO, based in Stillwater, Minnesota. "AMCC's switched fabric architecture, on top of the performance and cost saving benefits of PCI Express, give storage managers compelling options in protecting their data. RAID 6 and SAS will broaden these options even further to enable highly fault-tolerant, high performance environments."

E[acute accent]3ware 9590SE Specifications, Pricing and Availability

E[acute accent]The 3ware 9590SE SATA II RAID controllers deliver over 800MB/sec RAID 5 reads and exceed 380MB/sec RAID 5 writes, while supporting advanced Serial ATA 2.5 specification features including 3Gb/s speed and Native Command Queuing (NCQ). The 3ware 9590SE feature set includes StreamFusion dynamic cache allocation algorithm for performance optimization in multi-stream sequential I/O applications, StorSave performance optimization in critical RAID modes, and award-winning Multi-lane connectivity. E[acute accent]The 9590SE controllers come in half- and full-length form factors, and are available in 8-, 12-, and 16-port configurations. All kits are available today with an MSRP of $595, $795, and $995, respectively, and are backed with a 3-year warranty. For more information, please visit www.3ware.com or call the sales line at 1-877-88-3ware (877-883-9273).

E[acute accent]About AMCC

E[acute accent]AMCC provides the essential building blocks for the processing, moving and storing of data worldwide, and is the leading vendor of high-port count Serial ATA RAID controllers enabling low-cost, high-performance, high-capacity storage. AMCC blends systems and software expertise to deliver high-performance, high capacity SATA storage solutions for emerging storage applications such as disk-to-disk backup, near-line storage, network-attached storage (NAS), video, and high-performance computing. AMCC solutions are used by enterprises, ISPs, small and medium businesses, and consumers worldwide. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with sales and engineering offices located throughout the world. For further information regarding AMCC, please visit our web site at http://www.amcc.com.

E[acute accent]Forward Looking Statements

E[acute accent]This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as expects, anticipates, plans, believes, estimates, will or words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the products discussed in this press release, are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the risk that the products may not be successfully or timely developed, completed or manufactured or achieve market acceptance, risks relating to general economic conditions, as well as the risks and uncertainties set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, and in the Company's other SEC filings. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and AMCC does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.