Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (also known as AppliedMicro, AMCC or APM) was a

fabless semiconductor company Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not exclu ...

designing

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

and embedded

Power ISA Power ISA is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) currently developed by the OpenPOWER Foundation, led by IBM. It was originally developed by IBM and the now-defunct Power.org industry group. Power IS ...

(including a Power ISA license), and server processor

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...

(including an ARMv8-A license), optical transport and storage products.

History

In 2004, AMCC bought assets, IP and engineers concerning the

PowerPC 400 The PowerPC 400 family is a line of 32-bit embedded RISC processor cores based on the PowerPC or Power ISA instruction set architectures. The cores are designed to fit inside specialized applications ranging from system-on-a-chip (SoC) mi ...

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

s from IBM for $227 million and they now market the processors under their own name. The deal also included access to IBM's SoC design methodology and advanced CMOS

process technology A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

. In 2009, AppliedMicro changed their branding from AMCC to AppliedMicro, but still retain the name "Applied Micro Circuits Corporation" officially. In 2011, AppliedMicro became the first company to implement the 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 Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

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. 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 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging ...

architecture. In November 2016,

MACOM Technology Solutions MACOM Technology Solutions is a developer and producer of radio frequency, radio, microwave, and millimeter wave semiconductor devices and components. The company is headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts, and in 2005 was L ...

announced that they would purchase AppliedMicro. The acquisition was completed on January 26, 2017. MACOM then sold the processor division to the private equity firm The Carlyle Group during October 2017.

Memberships

AppliedMicro has a sponsor level membership of

Power.org Power.org was an organization to develop and promote Power Architecture technology by establishing its open standards, guidelines, best practices, and certifications. Power.org was founded in 2004 by IBM and 15 other companies. Freescale (later ...

and is one of the original members. AppliedMicro is also executive member (Chairman position) of the

Ethernet Alliance The Ethernet Alliance was incorporated in the US state of California in August 2005 and officially launched in January 2006 as a non-profit industry consortium to promote and support Ethernet. The objectives were to provide an unbiased, industry ...

. AppliedMicro is also a member of the

Open Compute Project The Open Compute Project (OCP) is an organization that shares designs of data center products and best practices among companies, including ARM, Meta, IBM, Wiwynn, Intel, Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Seagate Technology, Dell, Rackspace, Hewlett ...

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 PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

4xx series microcontrollers (acquired April 2004). Since purchasing the IBM PowerPC 400 family (under the 405 and 440 series product names), AppliedMicro developed the 460 series with 440 CPU, and a 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.

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.

Class-action lawsuit

In 2005, the company paid $60 million to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors against the company and certain of its current and former officers and directors. 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. 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.

References

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External links

Applied Micro Corporate website
Companies listed on the Nasdaq Fabless semiconductor companies Semiconductor companies of the United States Companies based in Sunnyvale, California