PMC-Sierra and Altera Announce Hardware Interoperability for OC-192 POS and 10 Gigabit Ethernet Networking Systems

BURNABY, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2001-- PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq:PMCS - news) and Altera Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR - news) today announced the successful interoperability of PMC-Sierra's XENON(TM) family of devices and Altera's POS-PHY Level 4-compatible APEX(TM) II devices.

The POS-PHY Level 4 interface is used for data transfer between physical layer devices, such as ATM, Packet-over-SONET (POS) framers, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet controllers, as well as link layer components, such as Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding, traffic management and switch fabric devices. The seamless connectivity between PMC-Sierra's XENON family (PM5390 S/UNI®-9953, PM5392 S/UNI®-9953-POS, PM3392 S/UNI®-1x10 GE, PM3388 S/UNI®-10xGE) and Altera's APEX II devices will accelerate time-to-market for next-generation 10 Gbit/s and high density Gigabit Ethernet systems, including multiservice routers and switches for optical networks.

"PMC-Sierra and Altera have worked closely to advance the optical network build out by providing compatible solutions that optimize network equipment for signal integrity and reach. Our customers' product development time will be reduced with the seamless interoperability between 10 Gbit/s physical layer devices and link-layer devices, through the POS-PHY Level 4 interface," said Steve Perna, vice president and general manager of PMC-Sierra's Optical Networking Division. "We are very pleased to have reference boards available today demonstrating this interoperability."

"The POS-PHY Level 4 interface is fully available today as an Altera MegaCore® IP function," said Justin Cowling, director of IP marketing at Altera. "The IP, together with the True-LVDS(TM) IOs on Altera's APEX II devices that are proven all the way up to 1 Gbit/s, provide a fast and low risk time-to-market advantage for our customers designing system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions."

About POS-PHY Level 4

POS-PHY Level 4 is an industry standard multiservice system interface supporting OC-192, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and multichannel configurations, including 2.5 Gbit/s OC-48, 622-Mbit/s OC-12 and Gigabit Ethernet, as required by the new generation of super routers and Layer 3 switches used in multiservice voice and data networks. The interface is flexible, supporting high-speed Packet-over-SONET (POS) Internet traffic as well as 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) applications. POS-PHY Level 4 originated from the SATURN® Development Group, co-founded by PMC-Sierra in 1992. It has since been standardized in the OIF as System Packet Interface Level 4 (SPI-4) Phase 2 and in the ATM Forum as Frame-Based ATM Interface Level 4 (FBATM-4). For more information, visit http://www.pmc-sierra.com/posphylevel4.

About PMC-Sierra's 10 Gigabit Ethernet XENON Family of Devices

The XENON family of clock recovery and concatenated PHY/framer devices designed enable the convergence of WAN-based OC-192 ATM/POS, Gigabit Ethernet (GE) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GE) services in the metro area network (MAN). The XENON family includes the PM5390 S/UNI®-9953 (10 GE LAN/WAN PHY and OC-192 ATM/POS concatenated PL4 framer), PM5392 S/UNI®-9953-POS (OC-192 POS/ATM concatenated PL4 framer), PM3392 S/UNI®-1x10 GE (10 GE LAN PHY with PL4), and PM3388 S/UNI®-10xGE (10 port GE PHY with PL4) devices. These four devices are ideal for current and next generation metro edge/core equipment such as routers, data center and POP switches and multiservice provisioning platforms. Additional details on the XENON family can be found at http://www.pmc-sierra.com/xenonfamily/index.html.

About Altera's APEX II Devices

The APEX II devices are Altera's high-performance, high-density programmable logic device (PLD) family for SOPC applications. Building on the successful APEX architecture, the APEX II device family marks a breakthrough in capability and system performance that place programmable logic directly in the datapath of high-performance communication applications. The APEX II architecture also provides up to 1.1 Mbits of internal memory creating the ideal solution for memory-intensive applications, such as packet processing. Additional details on the APEX II device family can be found at http://www.altera.com/products/devices/apex2/ap2-index.html.

About PMC-Sierra

PMC-Sierra is accelerating the broadband revolution. PMC-Sierra is a leading provider of high speed broadband communications semiconductors and MIPS-based processors for Access, Metro Transport and Optical Transport network equipment that make up the backbone of the Internet. The company offers worldwide technical and sales support, including a network of offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. PMC-Sierra is included in the S&P 500 Index which consists of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation and in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) which contains the largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market. PMC-Sierra is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the PMCS symbol. For more information about PMC-Sierra, visit http://www.pmc-sierra.com.

About Altera

Altera Corporation, The Programmable Solutions Company®, was founded in 1983 and is a leading supplier of programmable logic devices (PLDs). Altera's CMOS-based PLDs are user-programmable semiconductor chips that enhance flexibility and reduce time-to-market for companies in the communications, computer peripheral, and industrial markets. By using high performance devices, software development tools, and sophisticated intellectual property cores, system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions can be created with embedded processors, memory, and other complex logic together on a single PLD. Altera common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ALTR. More information on Altera is available on the Internet at http://www.altera.com.