Altera Reduces Prices on Highest-Density APEX 20KE Devices by 60 Percent
San Jose, Calif., November 27, 2000Altera Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR), a leading supplier of programmable logic devices (PLDs), today announced that its patented redundancy technology has dramatically increased the yields on its high-density APEX™ 20KE devices. For example, the APEX EP20K1500E, the largest device in Altera's APEX 20KE family, has realized a four-fold yield increase as a result of redundancy. Additionally, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Altera's wafer foundry and technology partner, has achieved substantial reductions in defect densities for Altera's high-density APEX 20KE device family. The 0.18-micron process technology that is used to manufacture the APEX 20KE products has produced better than expected yields overall.
"Altera has benefited greatly from its close partnership with TSMC," said Denis Berlan, Altera chief operating officer. "TSMC's state-of-the-art 0.18-micron fabs are reaching extremely low defect densities. Combined with the benefits of our patented redundancy technology, this has dramatically increased the yield on our high-density APEX 20KE family."
"The yield improvements we have made with Altera have been exceptional," said David Keller, vice president, business management at TSMC North America. "Currently, TSMC is delivering 0.18-micron technology in high volume and our defect densities are among the lowest in the industry."
With the dramatic cost reductions realized from advanced redundancy technology and low defect densities in the TSMC process, Altera is reducing the price on the high-density members of the APEX 20KE family by 60 percent.
"The APEX 20KE family is our fastest growing family ever," said Erik Cleage, Altera senior vice president of marketing. "Our manufacturing cost reductions are being passed on to customers enabling APEX 20KE devices to be used in higher volumes."
Advanced Redundancy Technology
Redundancy technology, commonly deployed in the memory industry, is used to enhance yields for semiconductor products and is most beneficial for larger die size devices. Redundant circuits can be thought of as spare blocks of circuitry on a device. The spare blocks can be used to repair circuits containing defects introduced during the manufacturing process. Because of the continuous interconnect structure of the APEX 20KE architecture, a device can be repaired by mapping the redundant circuitry in place of the defective circuitry while maintaining the device functionality and timing specifications. Altera is the only PLD manufacturer who employs this technology. Accordingly, it continues to be the lowest cost producer and delivers the best product margins in the PLD industry.
Design Tools
The APEX 20KE family is supported today in the Quartus™ development software, Altera's fourth-generation development environment. Altera's Quartus software meets the challenges of designing for multi-million gate devices and enables SOPC design methodology. Quartus software supports system-level designs and features links as good as native to industry leading, third-party tools from Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, Synplicity, Viewlogic, and other leading EDA vendors.
Pricing & Availability
The APEX EP20K1000E and EP20K1500E devices are available now in production quantities, off the shelf, from distributors worldwide, for $995 and $1995 respectively in quantities of 100. Packaging options for these devices include Altera's 652-pin BGA, 672-pin FineLine BGA™, and 1020-pin FineLine BGA packages.
About Altera
Altera Corporation, The Programmable Solutions Company®, was founded in 1983 and is a leading supplier of programmable logic devices (PLDs). Altera's CMOS-based PLDs are user-programmable semiconductor chips that enhance flexibility and reduce time-to-market for companies in the communications, computer peripheral, and industrial markets. By using high performance devices, software development tools, and sophisticated intellectual property cores, system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions can be created with embedded processors, memory, and other complex logic together on a single PLD. Altera common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ALTR. More information on Altera is available on the Internet at http://www.altera.com.
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