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PMC-Sierra Announces Enhanced PALADIN Architecture to Enable Next Generation 3G Wireless Base Stations

Vancouver, BC, February 16, 2004--PMC-Sierra, Inc. announced enhancements to the PALADIN® family of digitally-based processors used in wireless base transceiver stations (BTS), the equipment required to link wireless handsets to voice and data networks.

The enhanced PALADIN architecture incorporates new features to simplify the design of 3G wireless base stations for WCDMA and CDMA2000. Notably, the updated PALADIN architecture now supports 1xEV-DO, the newest generation of CDMA2000 technology. In Asia, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO is already being used for videoconferencing on wireless handsets. PMC-Sierra’s new PALADIN architecture enables OEMs and module vendors to build the next-generation BTS today.

“Our 2G, 2.5G, and 3G CDMA customers in Asia, Europe, and North America can seamlessly upgrade their existing BTS systems with our latest PALADIN architecture and significantly reduce developmental time and costs,” said Bill Richardson, manager of Strategic Marketing, for PMC-Sierra’s Service Provider Division. “Since our PALADIN processors are designed to accept digital baseband signals directly, as required by new industry interoperability specifications, system vendors deploying the PALADIN architecture will have a head start in implementing emerging standards such as OBSAI and CPRI.”

PMC-Sierra’s third generation PALADIN architecture utilizes digital pre-distortion (DPD) technology to improve power efficiencies by more than 50 percent over traditional analog feed-forward solutions, providing substantial OpEx savings for wireless carriers. In addition, DPD technology eliminates many complex analog components from the base station systems. By replacing these expensive analog components with simple and compact digital circuitry, OEMs can reduce CapEx today and take advantage of Moore’s Law to realize additional savings in the future.

Integrating Enhanced PALADIN Features
The enhanced PALADIN architecture uses the new PALADIN 10/15 Release 03 Firmware. The firmware includes extended support for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and Automatic Gain Control (AGC) to improve linearization performance and reduce cost and time in the factory. A user-configurable training signal also has been incorporated into the firmware that eliminates the need for factory test equipment and extra circuitry to initialize the PALADIN device’s compensation parameters. Using the internally generated signal has the added advantage of reducing factory training time.

PMC-Sierra’s PALADIN Product Family
The PALADIN family includes the new PALADIN 10/15 Release 03 Firmware, PM7800 PALADIN 10, PM7815 PALADIN 15, and PM7819 PALADIN Waveshaper™ devices (see Figure 1). All PALADIN devices support both WCDMA and CDMA2000 technology and work seamlessly together. The PALADIN 10 is suitable for up to 2-carrier WCDMA and up to 8-carrier IS-95/CDMA2000 systems. The PALADIN 15 is suitable for up to 3-carrier WCDMA and up to 12-carrier IS-95/CDMA2000 systems. The PALADIN Waveshaper performs digital multi-carrier combining and crest-factor reduction optimized for WCDMA and CDMA2000 systems.

Availability and Customer Support
The PALADIN 10/15 Release 03 Firmware is now released to full production. The firmware license is included with the purchase of the PM7800 PALADIN 10 and the PM7815 PALADIN 15. The PALADIN 10/15 Release 03 Firmware datasheet is available at www.pmc-sierra.com/products/ or www.pmc-sierra.com/wireless. A comprehensive support package including reference design and application notes is available upon request (registration required). For more information about pricing and availability, contact a PMC-Sierra sales representative at www.pmc-sierra.com/contactSales.

About PMC-Sierra’s Full Breadth of Wireless Products
PMC-Sierra provides off-the-shelf Application Specific Standard Product (ASSP) devices that help wireless base station manufacturers lower their costs without compromising system performance (see Figure 2). The company’s integrated architectural solutions enable wireless service providers to deploy scalable, feature-rich 2G, 2.5G, and 3G wireless network equipment optimized for both IP and ATM traffic. PMC-Sierra’s system-level solutions optimized for the required wireless link density include the following:

• VORTEX™ chip set provides four levels of Quality of Service (QoS) per line in order to support delay sensitive traffic such as voice. The chip set is optimized for use in full-featured, fault-tolerant wireless infrastructure equipment to connect between multiple baseband modem cards and the control cards;
• FREEDM™ and S/UNI® IMA product families for complex link aggregation;
• AAL1gator™ Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR) family that allows legacy data to be carried over the new ATM infrastructure using the industry standard AAL1 protocol;
• SERDES products for low-power RF to baseband card backplane interconnection;
• COMET™ product family that allows network operators to use existing T1, E1 or J1 lines for their initial 3G deployment;
• S/UNI products that provide uplink paths to higher speed fibre access;
• High performance MIPS-based™ microprocessors to handle the increased management and control functions required in a 3G base station; and
• New CLK™ family of advanced Clock Management products optimized for MIPS-based microprocessors.

About PMC-Sierra
PMC-Sierra™ is a leading provider of high speed broadband communications and storage semiconductors and MIPS-based microprocessors for Enterprise, Access, Metro Optical Transport, Storage Area Networking and Wireless network equipment. The company offers worldwide technical and sales support, including a network of offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the PMCS symbol and is included in the S&P 500 Index. For more information, visit www.pmc-sierra.com.

© Copyright PMC-Sierra, Inc. 2004. All rights reserved. PALADIN and S/UNI are registered trademarks of PMC-Sierra, Inc. AAL1gator, CLK, COMET, FREEDM, PMC, PMCS, PMC-Sierra, “Thinking You can Build On”, VORTEX and Waveshaper are trademarks of PMC-Sierra, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of the respective owners.

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