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Applied Micro Circuits Corporation
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Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (also known as AppliedMicro, AMCC or APM) was a fabless semiconductor company designing network and embedded Power ISA (including a Power ISA license), and server processor ARM (including an ARMv8-A license), optical transport and storage products.

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History

In 2004, AMCC bought assets, IP and engineers concerning the PowerPC 400 microprocessors from IBM for $227 million and began marketing the processors under their own name.1 The deal also included access to IBM's SoC design methodology and advanced CMOS process technology.

In 2009, AppliedMicro changed their branding from AMCC to AppliedMicro,2 but still retain the name "Applied Micro Circuits Corporation" officially.

In 2011, AppliedMicro was integral in (co-)developing ARM's first 64 bit-wide AArch64 ISA-extension and became the first company to implement the resulting ARMv8-A architecture with its X-Gene Platform. In November 2012 at ARM TechCon, AppliedMicro demonstrated advanced web search capabilities and the ability to handle big data workloads in an Apache Hadoop software environment with the X-Gene Platform using FPGA emulation. A silicon implementation of X-Gene was first exhibited publicly in June 2013.3

In April 2016, information about the forthcoming X-Gene 3 server chips was made available. The release schedule was for the second half of 2017. The company projected an improved performance, over the X-Gene 2, that with allow it to better compete with servers using the x86-64 architecture.4

In November 2016, MACOM Technology Solutions announced that they would purchase AppliedMicro.5 The acquisition was completed on January 26, 2017.6 MACOM then sold the processor division to the private equity firm The Carlyle Group during October 2017.7

Memberships

AppliedMicro has a sponsor level membership of Power.org and is one of the original members. AppliedMicro is also executive member (Chairman position) of the Ethernet Alliance. AppliedMicro is also a member of the Open Compute Project.

Business groups

Processor products

The Processor Products group designed and marketed embedded microcontrollers as well as server processor, packet and storage processors. It included the network processors of former MMC Networks (acquired October 2000) with IBM PowerPC 4xx series microcontrollers (acquired April 2004).

Since acquiring the IBM PowerPC 400 family (marketed under the 405 and 440 series product names), AppliedMicro further developed the 460 series, which integrates the 440 CPU and multicore Power architecture devices.

In January 2008, the AppliedMicro PowerPC 405EX was awarded Product of the Year 2007, by Electronic Product magazine.

In October 2011, AppliedMicro announced its X-Gene Platform, an ARM 64-bit solution aimed at cloud and enterprise servers.8

Connectivity products group

The Connectivity Products group of AppliedMicro designs, manufacturers and markets physical layer devices, framers/mappers and switch fabric devices.

Acquisitions

Throughout the years, AppliedMicro has acquired smaller companies to enter new markets.

DateAcquired companyExpertiseAmount
April 1998Ten Mountain Designtransceiver design
March 1999Cimaron CommunicationsSONET chips$115M in stock
April 2000Yuni Networksterabit switch fabrics$241M in stock
April 2000Chameleon TechnologiesFibre Channel and SONET products
April 2000PBaud Logic Inc.SONET and forward-error-correction
September 2000SilutiaCMOS mixed-signal design566,000 shares of stock
October 2000MMC Networksnetwork processors$4500M in stock
March 2001Raleigh Technology Corporation (RTC)Ethernet QoS ASICs9
September 2003PowerPRS product line from IBMswitch fabrics$47M
December 2003JNIFibre Channel products$196M in cash
April 2004PowerPC 400 series product line from IBMembedded microprocessors$227M in cash
April 20043wareRAID controllers$150M in cash
August 2006Quake Technologies10 Gb Ethernet transceivers$69M in cash
August 2010TPACK A/S10, Copenhagen, DenmarkOptical Transport-Network (OTN),Carrier-class silicon packet-transport$32 million in cash+ ≤$5 million in earn-outs

Class-action lawsuit

In 2005, the company paid $60 million to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors against the company, including current and former officers and directors.11 The suit had charged the company with issuing a series of materially false and misleading statements concerning the company's operations and prospects for Q4 2001 and beyond.12 Under the terms of the settlement, the company and defendants denied any wrongdoing. About half of the amount of the settlement was covered by insurance.13

References

  1. Law, Gillian (2004-04-13). "Applied Micro buys IBM PowerPC assets for $227 million". Network World. Retrieved 2023-04-01. https://www.networkworld.com/article/2332173/applied-micro-buys-ibm-powerpc-assets-for--227-million.html ↩

  2. "Applied Micro Circuits changes name". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-04-01. https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/11/30/daily8.html ↩

  3. "AMCC X-Gene 64-bit silicon spotted in the wild". SemiAccurate. 6 June 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013. SemiAccurate has been waiting for one big thing before declaring ARM servers real and AMCC has just delivered that. If you have been waiting for ARM V8 silicon to arrive, may we present to you AMCC X-Gene silicon in the wild. http://www.semiaccurate.com/2013/06/05/amcc-x-gene-64-bit-silicon-spotted-in-the-wild/ ↩

  4. "AppliedMicro's X-Gene 3 Aims for Intel's E5 Xeons". SemiAccurate. 2016-04-25. Retrieved 2021-03-18. https://www.semiaccurate.com/2016/04/25/appliedmicros-x-gene-3-aims-for-intels-e5-xeons/ ↩

  5. "ARM's Race: Who Will Buy Applied Micro's Compute Unit? | Light Reading". Light Reading. Retrieved 2016-11-24. http://www.lightreading.com/data-center/data-center-infrastructure/arms-race-who-will-buy-applied-micros-compute-unit/d/d-id/728526?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT ↩

  6. "MACOM Successfully Completes Acquisition of AppliedMicro" (Press release). January 26, 2017. http://www.macom.com/about/news-and-events/press-release-archive/row-col1/news--event-archive/macom-successfully-completes-a-1 ↩

  7. Shilov, Anton. "MACOM Sells AppliedMicro's X-Gene CPU Business". www.anandtech.com. Retrieved 2024-04-15. https://www.anandtech.com/show/11978/macom-sells-off-appliedmicros-xgene-cpu-business ↩

  8. Vättö, Kristian. "AppliedMicro Announces 64-bit ARM Based X-Gene SoCs". www.anandtech.com. Retrieved 2024-04-15. https://www.anandtech.com/show/5027/appliedmicro-announces-xgene-arm-based-socs-for-cloud-computing ↩

  9. "Company Overview of Raleigh Technology Corporation". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on June 10, 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2012. Raleigh Technology Corporation designs, develops and markets application specific integrated circuits for Ethernet local-area network switches, routers, and gateways. The company's product is aimed at the higher priced, higher margin market for circuits with value-added features. The company's integrated circuits will let large firms with Ethernet local-area networks converge their voice, data, and video networks by providing guaranteed bandwidth to voice and video. https://web.archive.org/web/20130610021200/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=657745 ↩

  10. AppliedMicro press-release. "AppliedMicro Agrees to Acquire TPACK for Emerging OTN Opportunities". Design & Reuse.com. Network EE|Times. Retrieved June 10, 2025. Applied Micro Circuits Corporation, or AppliedMicro (Nasdaq: AMCC) today announced that it has entered into a definitive stock-purchase agreement to acquire TPACK A/S of Copenhagen, Denmark. Applied Micro Circuits will pay $32 million in cash plus up to $5 million in cash earn-outs, that are depending primarily upon TPACK revenues and product development milestones scheduled over the next eighteen months. The transaction is expected to be profit neutral, excluding transaction costs, for our fiscal year ending March 31, 2011 and to be accretive thereafter. https://www.design-reuse.com/news/202518878-appliedmicro-agrees-to-acquire-tpack-for-emerging-otn-opportunities/ ↩

  11. "Applied Micro Circuits settles lawsuit". January 2005. Retrieved Jul 24, 2013. http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1152490 ↩

  12. "Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates, LLP Announces Class Action Lawsuit Against Applied Micro Circuits Corporation Seeking Damages On Behalf of Investors - AMCC". Cauley Bowman Carney & Williams. 25 May 2001. Retrieved 8 January 2015. http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2001/05/25/281273/17394/en/Cauley-Geller-Bowman-Coates-LLP-Announces-Class-Action-Lawsuit-Against-Applied-Micro-Circuits-Corporation-Seeking-Damages-On-Behalf-of-Investors-AMCC.html ↩

  13. "Applied Micro Circuits settles lawsuit". January 2005. Retrieved Jul 24, 2013. http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1152490 ↩