PMC-Sierra
- For the former computer game manufacturer see Sierra Entertainment. For the wireless equipment maker see Sierra Wireless.
| Industry | fabless semiconductor company |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | CEO, and President: Greg Lang Chairman: Robert L. "Bob" Bailey |
| Website |
PMC-Sierra Nasdaq: PMCS is a fabless semiconductor company which develops and sells devices into the communications, storage, printing, and embedded computing marketplaces.
Corporate history
Sierra Semiconductor was originally founded in 1984 in San Jose, California, and went public in 1991. It received funding on 1/11/1984 from Sequoia Capital.
Pacific Microelectronics Centre (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) was spun off from Microtel Pacific Research (the research arm of BC TEL at the time) to develop ATM and later SONET chips. With investment from Sierra Semiconductor, PMC was established in 1992 as a private company focused on providing networking semiconductors, and became a wholly owned, independently-operated subsidiary of Sierra Semiconductor in 1994. Microtel is currently a part of Verizon.
In August 1996, Sierra Semiconductor announced its decision to exit the personal computer modem chipset business, to restructure its other non-networking products and focus on its networking products. In 1997, the Company changed its name to PMC-Sierra to reflect the corporate focus on internetworking semiconductor solutions.
In 2001, PMC-Sierra was named "Semiconductor Supplier of the Year" by Cisco Systems and has received numerous other similar awards. PMC's CEO is Robert L. "Bob" Bailey.
As of 2007, the company employs over 1000 people and sells telecommunication, PON, storage and embedded microprocessor silicon solutions. It has design centers in 2 cities in Canada, 3 cities in the U.S., Israel, India, and China. It also has sales offices throughout the world and is a member of the Russell 2000 index.
PMC-Sierra products
PMC-Sierra has a large product line of devices for Storage Area Networking including:
- Fibre Channel Controllers (HPFC)
- Fibre Channel Port Bypass Controllers (PBC)
- Fibre Channel Cut-Thru-Switches (CTS)
- SAS Expanders (SXP)
- SAS/SATA Multiplexers (SPS)
- Storage enclosure processors (SMC)
- RAID Controllers (SRC).
PMC-Sierra is the volume leader in EPON controllers with an extensive product line of 802.3ah devices including
- EPON OLT Controller
- EPON OLT Burst receiver
- EPON ONT SOC
- GPON OLT Controller
- GPON OLT Burst receiver
- GPON ONT SOC
For SoHo and home gateway segments PMC-Sierra offers four MSP (Multi Service Processor) System-on-a-chip devices as well as DSL analog front end devices.
Recent products
- On June 4, 2007, the MSP7150 EPON/GPON gateway SoC platform and the MSP7140 VDSL2 gateway SoC platform for Fiber To The Node (FTTN) applications, was introduced.
- On June 5, 2007, the SRC, an eight port 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip controller, was introduced.
- On September 13, 2007, the MSP8110 and MSP8120 SoC processors were introduced.
- On September 17, 2007, the WiZIRD RFIC, which implements WiMAX MIMO, was introduced.
PMC-Sierra technology history
During the Sierra Semiconductor period in the 1980's and early 1990's, Sierra was the leading maker of Switched-capacitor filter based modems and also developed ASICs which combined processors and EEPROM. Sierra was the world leader in the 2400 and 4800 bps modem generations.
Pacific Microelectronics Centre (PMC) was a co-founder of the SATURN Development Group in 1992. PMC and PMC-Sierra produced a product line of communications devices in the "S/UNI" family to SATURN's PL-2, PL-3, and PL-4 specifications.
PMC-Sierra's other notable communications products include the TEMUX PDH multiplexer, the CHESS series SONET/SDH switches, and the AAL1gator Circuit Emulation Service device. They had the most complete product line of wireline communications ASSPs in the late 1990's and early 2000's.
PMC-Sierra, through its QED acquisition was a leader in MIPS microprocessors in the early 2000's. Its product line ranged from the RM5000 and RM7000 family of stand-alone microprocessors to the RM9000GL and RM9150 integrated System-On-a-Chip processors.
Acquisitions
Over the years, Sierra/PMC-Sierra has acquired several smaller companies to enter new market segments.
| Acquired Company | Date | Acquisition Price | Market Segment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Microelectronics Centre | 1994 (in two steps) | communications ICs | |
| Bipolar Integrated Technology | 1996 | $8M in stock | ethernet |
| Hypercore | April 1998 | hypercube-based interconnects | |
| IgT | May 1998 | $55M | ATM based product line |
| Abrizio | September 1999 | $400M | switch fabrics for core networks |
| Toucan | January 2000 | $26M in stock | DSP for DSL |
| Extreme Packet Devices | March 2000 | $415M | traffic managers |
| AANetcom | March 2000 | $964M | Serdes |
| Datum | June 2000 | $125M | DSP for cell basestations |
| Malleable | June 2000 | $299M | VOIP |
| Quantum Effect Devices | August 2000 | $2300M in stock | microprocessors |
| SwitchOn | September 2000 | $450M | packet classifiers |
| Octera | December 2000 | $16M | design verification |
| assets of Brecis | November 2004 | $3.7M | VOIP product line |
| Storage division of Avago Technologies | January 2006 | $425M in cash | Storage Semiconductors |
| Passave | May 2006 | $300M in stock | fiber optics to the home |
During its acquisition binge of 2000, the company increased its headcount from 650 to a peak of 1750 within one year.
Corporate Restructurings
The company has experienced multiple restructurings, particularly in the wake of the 2000 bursting of telecom bubble.
| Date | Sites Affected | Groups Affected | Number of Employees Terminated |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 1996 | San Jose, CA | Sierra PC Modem team | 150 people |
| ~1997 | San Jose, CA | Sierra operations team | |
| March 2001 | Burnaby, British Columbia; Santa Clara, CA; Kanata, Ontario | Internet Routing Division shutdown - the Abrizio, Extreme, Malleable and SwitchOn teams | 350 people in 2 rounds of layoffs |
| January 2003 | Gaithersburg, Maryland; Dublin and Galway, Ireland; Pune, India; San Diego, CA - all shut down | majority of IgT; Toucan and Octera groups | 175 people |
| June 2005 | Santa Clara, CA | full-custom design team of Microprocessor Products Division - the QED team | 89 people |
| January 2006 | Santa Clara, CA; Portland OR | ASIC design teams of Microprocessor Products Division, remaining IgT team | 30 people |
| August 2006 | Ottawa, Ontario - shut down | various including a mixed signal team | 45 people |
| March 2007 | Winnipeg, Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - both shut down; Bangalore, India | Hypercore team, Winnipeg validation team, Montreal digital design team, Banglore SSG group | 175 people |
| December 2007 | Burnaby, others | CPE team, Burnaby operations, others | 44 people |