For Release: October 9, 2001
HardCopySM Program Opens New Business Opportunities for Altera
San Jose, Calif.,October 9, 2001 -- Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) today expanded its business opportunities with the introduction of the HardCopySM program, the latest offering in Altera's system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) strategy. Utilizing a unique migration technology, Altera now offers customers a seamless migration path from the largest programmable logic device (PLD) to a hard, masked version for low-cost, high-volume production, opening up major new business opportunities for the company.
"Customers in today's markets want design flexibility, quick development and low cost. The HardCopy program allows PLD customers with the most complex designs to reach all these goals by combining a PLD for prototyping and a HardCopy device for production," said John Daane, president and CEO of Altera. "The HardCopy program is an enabling technology that gives us the potential to expand our level of business with existing customers as well as achieve design wins never before open to programmable logic."
Recent advances in semiconductor manufacturing technology combined with the ever-increasing need for greater functionality have led to unprecedented die sizes. This has created a growing spread between the cost of the largest PLDs and equivalent ASICs devices. Seizing the opportunity to satisfy more of its customers' requirements for cost reduction and rapid time to market, Altera becomes the first company to develop a viable and proprietary migration technology that enhances and extends the value proposition of highest density programmable logic (above 400,000 gates) into a volume production environment.
"The market window for PLD conversions is opening wider," said Bryan Lewis, director and chief analyst of Gartner's Dataquest Semiconductor group. "As PLD devices continue to dramatically increase in functionality and density, customers want a seamless route to drive down costs, thus reducing overall systems costs. PLD conversions fill the void left between the high volume requirement of cell-based ICs and the high cost of leading edge high density PLDs."
Customers designing complex systems leverage mid-range and smaller density PLDs for both prototype and production volumes. However, users of higher density devices above 400,000 gates traditionally turn to ASIC or gate-array vendors for volume production but are constantly seeking a lower risk option. As complexities increase, so do the risks of conversion, making the final decision to convert to ASICs more difficult. This "point of no return" can now be deferred with the HardCopy device solution, which delivers a rapid, approximate 8-week prototype turnaround.
Altera assumes the responsibility for migration of PLD designs to the HardCopy version, relieving customers from additional engineering effort. Additionally, non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs are significantly lower than those of ASIC devices. HardCopy devices are designed to fit into the same socket as the high density APEX and Excalibur devices, transferring the full functionality of the original PLD and eliminating the need for board re-design.
More information on Altera and Hard Copy devices is available at www.altera.com/hardcopy. A web cast replay of Altera President and CEO John Daane launching the Hard Copy program will be available at www.altera.com.
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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