Altera’s process technology selection is a critical component of the company’s tailored approach. The process technology Altera selects defines the capabilities of each new product family and allows Altera to optimize its devices for specific application requirements. Due to the diverse range of applications that FPGAs serve, it is unrealistic to expect that a portfolio based on a single process technology is capable of efficiently meeting the low-power, low-cost requirements of today’s industrial automation systems, while at the same time fulfilling the demanding performance requirements of high-end networking equipment.
Extending Altera’s Tailored Approach to Process Technology Selection
Within its next-generation product portfolio, Altera significantly expands its tailored approach by combining multiple process technologies/nodes from multiple foundries.
Altera is leveraging Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate transistor technology (commonly referred to as FinFET) for the development of ultra-high-performance FPGAs. Devices built on Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate process will serve the high-performance end of Altera’s next-generation product portfolio targeted at applications in wireline networking, cloud computing, radar signal processing, and other ultra-high-bandwidth applications that require even greater I/O bandwidth, more and faster internal memory and external memory access, and significantly faster computing speed.
Altera will also leverage TSMC’s 20 nm system-on-a-chip (20SoC) process in its next-generation portfolio for the development of other device families that are tailored to serve the broadest range of applications. Mixing and matching process technologies in its next-generation portfolio allows Altera to create the most differentiated products in the industry and enables customers to achieve a measureable advantage in their end application.
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14 nm Tri-Gate |
20SoC |
