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Technology Stocks : PMC-Sierra (PMCS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bulldozer who wrote (2525)	6/10/1999 11:49:00 PM
From: mariner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3818

Bulldozer So long as you continue to educate me (and others) with your superb posts on various threads you have no need to apologize for being enthusiastic. mariner

To: Bulldozer who wrote (2525)	6/11/1999 1:11:00 PM
From: DOUG H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3818

Bulldozer, I'm liking the story here but don't know the ABC's of the CO architechure. In other words, how do all the pieces fit? Can you give the third grade explaination as it relates to this co's hardware. Thanks in advance. D.H. ***VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 1999-- PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq:PMCS - news) today announced the VORTEX chip set -- a full-featured, highly integrated solution for ATM or packet-based Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers (DSLAMs). It supports all DSL service types including ADSL, G.Lite, HDSL, and VDSL -- providing traffic aggregation, switching, maintenance and management functions for over 2,000 subscriber lines. The VORTEX chip set includes three new products -- the PM7350 S/UNI-DUPLEX (line card multiplexer), the PM7351 S/UNI-VORTEX (core card multiplexer) and the PM7326 S/UNI-APEX (ATM/packet traffic manager and switch), and the recently announced PM7324 S/UNI-ATLAS (ATM layer solution). The chip set is ideal for DSLAM equipment used to provide high speed consumer Internet access, as well as third generation wireless base stations, base station controllers and multi-service access equipment. High Speed Consumer Internet Access Previous generations of DSLAM equipment have been deployed primarily by Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) to deliver premium quality, high speed data services for business users. Meanwhile, aggressive pricing and early availability provided cable modems with an early market lead over the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) for high speed consumer Internet Access. As voice service over cable becomes a reality, the continued growth of cable modems will intensify the pressure on equipment vendors to provide ILECs with full-featured DSLAM equipment to deliver low cost, high speed consumer Internet services suitable for mass market deployment. The new VORTEX chip set is the first in the industry to address these requirements. It features a centralized traffic management chip (the S/UNI-APEX) which provides comprehensive traffic switching and management functions for over 2000 subscriber lines. By centralizing the complex traffic buffering and management functions, the S/UNI-APEX eliminates the need for traffic management functions on the line card. Most currently available solutions support just 32 lines of traffic management per chip requiring multi-chip DLSAM designs with more costly line cards. ''We worked closely with our customers to resolve the challenging problem of designing equipment that provides full-featured yet low cost DSLAM services,'' said Glenn Bindley, PMC-Sierra general manager, access products division. ''We believe that the highly integrated VORTEX chip set will serve as a catalyst to speed the consumer ADSL market transition from early adopter to mass deployment,'' Bindley concluded. Chip Set Applications The VORTEX chip set is optimized for use in full-featured, fault tolerant DSLAMs used to deliver high speed consumer Internet Access service. In addition, the chip set provides four levels of Quality of Service (QoS) per line in order to support delay sensitive traffic such as voice, and high quality data services for business (Figure 1). The VORTEX chip set is used in conjunction with PMC-Sierra's FREEDM packet processor to implement a high density Frame Relay port card for a multi-service ATM switch (Figure 2). Third generation wireless standards including CDMA and UMTS require the QoS support capabilities provided by the VORTEX chip set. Figure 3 shows the chip set used in a CDMA wireless base transceiver station. Key features of the VORTEX architecture In addition to the high density traffic management capabilities, the VORTEX chip set uses a redundant Low Voltage Differential Signal (LVDS) serial interconnect between the DSLAM subscriber line cards and the centralized switch card. This approach supports scalability to large size systems while minimizing the power and complexity of the line card, one of the most cost sensitive DSLAM components. Current solutions typically use parallel bus architectures to interconnect the line cards and the central switch. The parallel bus architecture does not scale well to large multi-shelf systems and results in a single point of system failure. The VORTEX chip set uses a centralized switching architecture to greatly reduce system software complexity by eliminating the need for software intelligence on the line cards. Current solutions typically employ distributed traffic management and control functions that span the line cards and the central switch. The distributed control approach results in higher complexity, longer product development cycles and makes in-service feature upgrades difficult. Pricing, Packaging and Availability The S/UNI-ATLAS, S/UNI-VORTEX and S/UNI-DUPLEX are sampling now. The S/UNI-APEX will sample later in the third quarter of 1999. Pricing in 1KU quantity is $299 for the S/UNI-ATLAS, $220 for the S/UNI-VORTEX, $65 for the S/UNI-DUPLEX and $299 for the S/UNI-APEX. All four devices are low power 3.3V CMOS and rated for industrial temperature range operation (-40 C to +85 C). The S/UNI-ATLAS is packaged in a 432 SBGA, the S/UNI-VORTEX in a 304 SBGA, the S/UNI-DUPLEX in a 160 PBGA and the S/UNI-APEX in a 352 SBGA package. About PMC-Sierra PMC-Sierra is a leading provider of high speed internetworking component solutions emphasizing ATM, Ethernet, SONET/SDH, T1/E1 and T3/E3 applications. The company's quality system is registered with the Quality Management Institute to the ISO 9001 standard