AMCC's Comprehensive, Low-Cost PowerPC 440EP Evaluation Kit Accelerates Customers' Time-to-Market
SAN DIEGO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—June 28, 2005—
Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (Nasdaq:AMCC) today
announced the availability of a low-cost, easy-to-use evaluation kit
for its PowerPC(R) 440EP processor. To accelerate customers' system
development time, AMCC's 440EP kit provides users with a comprehensive
set of resources including a custom-designed evaluation board,
industry-standard software development tools, sample applications,
system-level benchmarks and hardware design files. The kit allows
customers first to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the 440EP
processor and then to use the base hardware/software design as a
starting-point for their own product development.
The kit includes an evaluation board named "Yosemite" designed for
AMCC by Embedded Planet, LLC. The Yosemite board is configured with
the Linux operating system, but also provides the flexibility to load
and run other PowerPC-compatible embedded operating systems.
Schematics and layout files for the board are provided so customers
can start their designs from a proven baseline. The board, with a 5" x
7" form factor, includes an AMCC 440EP processor operating at a clock
frequency of 533MHz. Other features include 256Mbytes of SDRAM,
32Mbytes of Flash, two 10/100 Ethernet ports, one USB 2.0 port, two
USB 1.0 ports, JTAG connector, Trace connector, PCI host connector,
Linux (2.6 kernel) in Flash, and Uboot boot firmware in Flash. Also
included in the evaluation kit is a suite of advanced processor and
board diagnostics from Kozio, Inc., known as kDiagnostics. This
diagnostics package, which can be licensed by customers, performs
in-depth testing of the processor and evaluation board.
The Resource CD offers a wide range of sample applications that
can be used as a starting-point for customers' software development,
as well as various utilities to aid in system configuration. The
sample applications include a web server, telnet server, FTP server
and example game, while the utilities provide a detailed configuration
report on the board and utilities for setting the IP address and MAC
ID. This software is provided to the user as source code as well as
executables. To assist customers in selecting the optimum development
environment for their 440EP-based projects, evaluation versions of
best-in-class software tools products from DENX Software Engineering,
Embedded Toolsmiths, Green Hills Software, Inc. and LynuxWorks(TM),
Inc. are provided.
The Resource CD also contains industry-standard benchmarks for use
in processor performance analysis, including TTCP, DBench, Dhrystone,
Whetstone, HINT, STREAM and MPEG-4. These benchmarks allow customers
to perform a detailed analysis of the 440EP processor's performance
using standard metrics without having to acquire and configure the
benchmarks themselves.
"AMCC's 440EP evaluation kit is one of the most comprehensive
evaluation kits on the market today. With these resources in hand,
including our custom-designed Yosemite evaluation board, customers'
testing and overall development time will be greatly accelerated,
helping them get their products to market as quickly as possible,"
said Matt Hoover, Embedded Planet's vice president of sales and
marketing.
"The selection criteria for choosing an embedded processor have
shifted. Customers are closely examining the breadth of development
tools and software support available with each processor.
Simultaneously, the availability of an evaluation board with reference
applications and layout files dramatically advances the customer's
development cycle," said Steven Howell, technical marketing manager
for Memec Insight. "AMCC's new 440EP evaluation kit is not only an
outstanding kit, offering a wide variety of tools from
industry-leading suppliers, but it's a remarkable value."
"We understand the importance of providing the necessary tools
that our customers need to jump-start their system development and
processor evaluation," said Charlie Ashton, director of PowerPC
software at AMCC. "The 440EP evaluation kit serves as a cost-effective
means to evaluate the 440EP processor as well as a launch pad for our
customers to start the development of their products based on the
440EP."
A similar evaluation kit will be available for AMCC's PowerPC
440GR processor early next quarter. The 440GR kit will include the
same comprehensive set of resources found in the 440EP, plus a
"Yellowstone" evaluation board also designed for AMCC by Embedded
Planet.
Both AMCC's easy-to-use 440EP and 440GR evaluation kits are
designed for customer setup in 15 minutes or less and is aggressively
priced at $750. The 440EP evaluation kit may be ordered from AMCC
using part number EV-440EP-KIT-00. For more information, please
contact your local AMCC sales office or visit http://www.amcc.com.
About AMCC
AMCC provides the essential building blocks for the processing,
moving and storing of information worldwide. The company blends
systems and software expertise with high-performance, high-bandwidth
silicon integration to deliver silicon, hardware and software
solutions for global wide area networks (WAN), embedded applications
such as PowerPC and programmable SOC architectures, storage area
networks (SAN), and high-growth storage markets such as Serial ATA
(SATA) RAID. AMCC's corporate headquarters are located in San Diego,
California. Sales and engineering offices are located throughout the
world. For further information regarding AMCC, please visit our web
site at http://www.amcc.com.
Forward Looking Statements
The statements contained in this press release that are not purely
historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements,
including statements relating to the markets, growth of markets and
products, including the risk that the markets would not grow at the
rates forecasted, and the demand for products would not materialize,
risks relating to general economic conditions, as well as the risks
and uncertainties set forth in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. 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 news release are made as of the date hereof and AMCC does not
assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Product photos, datasheets and application notes are available
upon request. AMCC is a registered trademark of Applied Micro Circuits
Corporation.
PowerPC is a registered trademark of the International Business
Machines Corporation.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact:
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation
Charlie Ashton, 512-372-1724
Email Contact
or
The Ardell Group (AMCC Editorial Contact)
Emily Agan, 858-792-2939
Email Contact
