PMC-Sierra, Inc. (Nasdaq: PMCS) operates as a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops, and sells high-performance integrated circuits for storage, communications, optical networking, printing, and embedded computing markets; core products include Fibre Channel controllers and system interconnects for storage networks, SAS/SATA RAID adapters under the Adaptec by PMC brand, Flashtec non-volatile memory controllers, metro access and transport ICs, FTTH/PON solutions, OTN processors such as the DIGI-G4 chipset for 400G line cards, MIPS-based network processors and UniTRX RFICs for wireless base stations supporting standards like LTE and WCDMA, and discrete/system-on-chip devices for laser printers. The company serves equipment manufacturers such as HP, EMC, Huawei, Cisco, and Juniper, who supply communications service providers and enterprises worldwide, with operations spanning North America, Europe, Israel, and Asia. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, PMC-Sierra outsources wafer fabrication and assembly to third-party suppliers while maintaining design and testing in-house.
PMC-Sierra underwent significant strategic changes, including the acquisition of Passave Inc. in 2006 for fiber-to-the-home semiconductors, Wintegra Inc. in 2010 for $240 million to enhance wireless infrastructure capabilities, and IDT's flash controller business in 2013 leading to the 2014 Flashtec product launch; it was acquired by Microsemi Corporation in January 2016 for approximately $2.5 billion, renaming part of its operations to Microsemi Storage Solutions, Inc., and subsequently integrated into Microchip Technology Incorporated following Microchip's 2018 acquisition of Microsemi.