Altera and Sequans Provide First Mobile WiMAX Base Station Modem Chipset

Combined Offering Key to Rapid, IEEE 802.16e-2005 Modem Development

San Jose, Calif. and Paris, France, May 15, 2006—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR) and SEQUANS Communications today announced the availability of the first mobile WiMAX basestation modem chipset supporting the recently ratified IEEE 802.16e-2005 broadband wireless access standard. Comprised of three Stratix^® II FPGAs,the Sequans SQN2110 modem chipset provides wireless OEMs with a ready-made solution for developing mobile WiMAX systems.

Mobile WiMAX is a technology based on IEEE’s most recent iteration for wideband wireless communications. It provides mobile wireless connectivity without line-of-sight to basestations, a cell radius of three to ten kilometers and system access speeds of up to 40 Mbps per channel.

“Altera’s^® FPGAs allow rapid delivery of an off-the-shelf flexible chipset to accommodate various customer needs and evolving WiMAX specifications, and presents a clear cost reduction path through pin-to-pin HardCopy^® structured ASIC,” said Bernard Aboussouan, Sequans’ vice president of marketing and business development. “As a result, our solution meets Wave 1 mobile WiMAX certification requirements and offers a clear migration path to Wave 2 certification profile, including the support of adaptive antenna systems (AAS) and multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO).”

Altera’s Stratix II FPGAs are used for the medium control access (MAC) and physical interface (PHY) layers of the 802.16e-2005 channel card. The chipset supports the first-wave certification profile stage as well as diverse hardware requirements and processing speeds with flexibility and integration essential to this new standard. Each wave will include new certification profiles and/or new functions.

“Compared to fixed logic implementations, FPGA-based products offer superior design flexibility,” said Arun Iyengar, senior director of Altera’s wireless business unit. “This is particularly valuable for reducing risk when designing to evolving standards. By partnering with leading intellectual property providers such as Sequans, our customers now have immediate access to a rapid- response solution for new wireless protocols and services.”

For more information on Altera wireless solutions, visit www.altera.com/end-markets/wireless/. To see how other customers are using Altera products in wireless applications, visit  www.altera.com/wirelesssuccess. For information on accelerating WiMAX designs using Altera FPGAs, visit www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp_wimax.pdf.

Sequans will also offer the previously announced SQN1110, a complementary IEEE 802.16e-2005 mobile station modem chip, for customer premise equipment (CPE). For more information on Sequans’ solutions please visit www.sequans.com. Visit Sequans Communications at WiMAX World Europe in Vienna, May 22-24th, in booth #406

Availability

The Sequans’ mobile WiMAX evaluation kits are shipping today. Availability of the chipsets is planned for June 2006.

About Sequans Communications

SEQUANS Communications (www.sequans.com) is a leading supplier of silicon and software for broadband wireless access. By providing integrated PHY and MAC solutions that seamlessly fit into system vendors’ designs, Sequans greatly lowers cost of ownership of base stations and subscriber stations. Sequans delivers standards-based solutions, compliant with the requirements of the WiMAX Forum™. It also incorporates additional features for increased coverage and mobility, thus lowering deployment costs and enabling fixed, nomadic/portable and mobile applications.

About Altera

Altera’s programmable solutions enable system and semiconductor companies to rapidly and cost-effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Find out more at www.altera.com.

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