Altera Low-Cost Solutions Adopted by NEC For HSDPA Basestation Products

Altera Cyclone FPGAs and MAX CPLDs Selected for NEC’s 3GPP Release 5 Basestations

San Jose, Calif., Sept. 7, 2005—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced that Tokyo-based NEC Corp. will use CycloneTM FPGAs and MAX® 3000 CPLDs in their 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) macro basestations that support high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). NEC selected Altera® devices because of the cost benefits as well as Altera’s extensive lead-free programmable logic product offering.

“By choosing Altera, we gained access to the lowest-cost FPGAs and CPLDs in the world and were able to take advantage of their considerable experience with 3G wireless technology,” said Dr. Nobuhiro Endo, senior general manager of the mobile network operations unit at NEC. “As a result, we were able to jointly architect an innovative and world-class DSP solution for our W-CDMA macro basestation. We also shared product roadmaps and established a clear path to further cost reduction with Altera’s Cyclone II and MAX II device families.”

Altera’s extensive support for wireless infrastructure development includes both device and intellectual property (IP) solutions for HSDPA basestations. Cyclone series FPGAs deliver unparalleled performance for digital signal processing (DSP) and other functions implemented in HSDPA basestations, at the lowest cost. Additionally, Altera DSP IP MegaCore® functions address many of the high-speed signal processing requirements of the baseband modem and digital intermediate frequency (IF) functions.

HSDPA Delivers Greater Bandwidth

HSDPA is a significant enhancement to W-CDMA and can achieve speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps. The 3GPP, a collaborative project for global standardization of third-generation mobile communication systems, has specified HSDPA technology to address the growing demand for data services and mobile multimedia such as digital images, movies and video conferencing. Based on W-CDMA, NEC’s next-generation mobile network products achieve high bandwidth by complying with the 3GPP Release 5 standards, which require support for HSDPA service.

“We are committed to working with communications technology leaders such as NEC to bring the world’s most advanced wireless networks, including 3G and beyond, to reality,” said Arun Iyengar, senior director of Altera’s wireless business unit. “Both the Cyclone and MAX families provide the flexibility, performance and densities required to meet the challenges of high-bandwidth mobile infrastructure system design at the lowest cost.”

To learn more about Altera’s solutions for 3G radio access and core networks, visit www.altera.com/end-markets/wireless/overview/wir-overview.html.

To see how customers have used Altera products in wireless applications, visit www.altera.com/wirelesssuccess.

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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