Industry's Largest 0.13-micron FPGA Now Production Qualified

Altera's Stratix EP1S80 Device Transitions to Production Status

San Jose, Calif., January 21, 2003--Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced its largest available Stratix™ device family member, the EP1S80, has transitioned to full production status in less than three months from initial shipments as engineering samples. The EP1S80 device is the largest 0.13-micron FPGA available on the market today. With 79,040 logic elements (LEs), 7.2 Mbits of embedded RAM, and 1,238 user I/Os, the EP1S80 device offers more memory, I/O pins, and digital signal processing capability than any competing device.

"The rapid rollout of Stratix EP1S80 devices means that we can speed the development of our next-generation plasma display panel TV," said Bon-Cheol Koo, senior research engineer at LG Electronics Inc. "We have found the high memory density of Stratix devices to be very useful in our products."

Altera's Stratix EP1S80 device is built on TSMC's state-of-the-art 0.13-micron, all-layer copper process technology, providing customers with both increased core performance and excellent availability. In addition, Altera's patented redundancy technology allows this large device to be manufactured in a predictable and cost-effective manner. "The excellent yield improvements on TSMC's 0.13-micron process, combined with Altera's unique redundancy technology, are helping us meet the strong customer demand for the EP1S80 device," said Tim Colleran, vice president of product marketing at Altera.

The flawless rollout of the Stratix EP1S80, currently in the hands of several dozen customers, is attributed to the modular architecture of Stratix FPGAs combined with extensive functional verification of the devices before tape-out. Customers now have immediate access to volume production EP1S80 devices through their local Altera distributor.

Pricing and Availability
Production versions of Stratix EP1S80 devices are available now in 1.27 mm, 956-pin BGA and 1.0 mm, 1508-pin FineLine BGA® packages. Stratix EP1S80 device pricing will start at $800 in high volume at the end of 2003. A total of six Stratix family members are now shipping with the seventh device, the EP1S60, expected to ship in March. To find out more about the shipping status of all of the Stratix devices, visit Altera's website at: www.altera.com/products/devices/stratix/stx-index.jsp.

About Altera
Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) is the world's pioneer in system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property, and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at www.altera.com.

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