Adaptec 2001 Annual Report Download - page 6

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6
By leveraging the knowledge and technical expertise of companies such as PMC-Sierra, the
OEMs are able to focus their efforts on differentiating factors. In many cases, it can take several
years before a new silicon chip or chip set can be designed, manufactured, tested, and released
to full production for a customer. It is essential, therefore, that the companies like PMC-Sierra
that develop the chips to be incorporated into the OEM equipment work very closely with their
OEM customers so that together they can optimally solve the needs of the service providers.
PRODUCTS
We have more than 100 revenue-producing products in our portfolio. Our networking products
are communications semiconductors, including microprocessors, that are used in different
types of equipment that form the internet infrastructure. Our non-networking segment is
comprised of a single chip used in a consumer medical device.
Networking Products
Our products are sold into three areas of the telecommunications netw ork: the Access, M etro
and Enterprise areas. We design many of our products with standardized interfaces betw een
chips so that our customers can easily develop and implement solutions involving multiple
PMC-Sierra products.
The following briefly describes the Access, Metro and Enterprise portions of the internet
infrastructure and some typical equipment that may include our chips and chipsets. Due to the
complexity of the telecommunications network, it is not possible to sharply delineate
netw orking functions or markets. In addition, many of our products may be used in multiple
classes of networking equipment that are deployed across all of the market areas identified
below, w hile some of our other products have highly specialized applications. For example,
our microprocessors can be used in many networking equipment applications, while our
Paladin chip may only be used in wireless base station applications. In some situations,
different OEMs might use our chips or chipsets in equipment addressing more than one of the
market areas noted below.
• Access: this area of the telecommunications netw ork infrastructure encompasses
technologies that connect the home or office to the internet. This area includes wired
and wireless netw orking equipment that aggregates transmissions from the home or
office and connects to the metro and wide area netw orks. For example, our devices
would be deployed in digital subscriber line access multiplexers, wireless base stations,
add-drop multiplexers (which add and drop signals and streams of data from optical
netw orks) and sw itches (which direct the data traffic to other destinations within the
network).
• Metro: the metro, or metro, area of the internet infrastructure is predominantly a fiber-
based netw ork that provides high-speed communications and data transfer over a city
center or local region. This portion of the network manages traffic inside its own region
and manages traffic between the access and long-haul transport networks for inter-city
or international transmission. Our products are used in metro equipment such as
switches and routers that gather and process signals in different protocols, and then
transmit them to the next destination as quickly and efficiently as possible.