Altera's Latest Viterbi Decoder Core Provides the Industry's Best Performance

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR - news) today released a significantly enhanced version of the Viterbi decoder core that provides designers with the lowest cost and highest performance error correction system for current and emerging wireless applications such as 3G wireless basestations, digital video broadcast (DVB), local multi-point distribution system (LMDS), and multi-point multi-channel distribution system (MMDS). This fully parameterizable Viterbi decoder is the only Viterbi core available that is proven to run over 185 Mbps throughput and is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.16 specifications.

"Altera continues to push the performance ceiling for its products to a whole new level," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts. "The latest release of its Viterbi decoder core is another example that illustrates Altera's strong commitment to providing DSP designers with the highest performance and lowest cost implementation for the next generation of wireless networks."

The new Viterbi decoder version 3.0 is up to 50 percent smaller and twice as fast as the previous version. The Viterbi decoder is powered with Altera's industry-first MegaWizard® Plug-In technology, which enables users to parameterize the various features such as constraint length (3 to 9) and number of soft decision bits (2 to 16). With dedicated in-house DSP engineering teams with a combined experience of over 150 years, Altera has always been on the forefront of providing the latest products to its customers.

"This release is Altera's third generation of Viterbi decoder core, which builds on the strength of previous versions currently being used by major wireless customers," said Justin Cowling, director of intellectual property marketing at Altera. "We are able to achieve this breakthrough performance by capitalizing on our APEX(TM) II architecture."

Implementing Viterbi Decoder for IEEE 802.16 Specifications

IEEE 802.16 standard specifies the air interface of fixed point-to-multipoint broadband wireless access (BWA) systems providing multiple services. This standard is intended to enable rapid worldwide deployment of broadband wireless access products. Altera's Viterbi decoder is fully compliant with the new IEEE 802.16 specifications, which requires a Viterbi block decoder with constraint length of 3, traceback length of 32, and minimum throughput requirement of 44.8 Mbps. A white paper outlining more details about designing a Viterbi decoder for IEEE 802.16 in Altera PLDs can be downloaded from Altera's IP MegaStore(TM) web site at http://www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp_ieee80216.pdf .

Pricing and Availability

The Viterbi compiler consists of two types of Viterbi decoders. The high-speed parallel Viterbi decoder (ordering code: IP-VITERBI/HS) and low speed hybrid serial Viterbi decoder (ordering code: IP-VITERBI/SS). Both these decoder cores are listed at $9,995 each for a perpetual license with 12 months of upgrades and technical support. Both cores are optimized for APEX II, APEX 20KE, APEX 20KC, Mercury(TM), FLEX®, and ACEX(TM) device families. Detailed documentation about these products can be found on the IP MegaStore web site at http://www.altera.com/IPmegastore .

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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