Texas Instruments and Altera Partner to Deliver Low-Cost PCI Express

San Jose, Calif., March 15, 2006—Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) and Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced the availability of a low-cost, PCI-SIG-compliant solution that reduces the cost and accelerates the development of PCI Express-based systems. Ideal for video cards, data acquisition, test and network equipment, and various embedded applications, this robust, easy-to-use offering includes TI’s XIO1100 PCI Express x1 physical layer (PHY) chip, Altera’s low-cost Cyclone^TM II FPGAs and PCI Express x1 MegaCore^® intellectual property (IP) function.

“Through intensive technical collaboration with Altera, we have successfully achieved PCI-SIG compliance, which brings a comprehensive solution for customers at their system, device and board levels,” said Dusty Russell, general manager for TI’s digital interface business unit. “Altera’s Cyclone II FPGAs and PCI Express IP coupled with TI’s XIO1100 PHY provide an outstanding solution via the industry standard PIPE [PHY Interface for PCI Express] interface.”

TI and Altera began partnering in early 2005 to develop this compelling PCI Express solution.   As a result, the solution has been thoroughly tested at the protocol and board levels, ensuring total interoperability between the two devices. It was approved by PCI‑SIG, the industry forum for developing PCI Express specifications and performing interoperability.

“The availability of this PCI-SIG-compliant solution reinforces the leadership position of Altera and TI in the semiconductor industry,” said Danny Biran, Altera’s vice president of product and corporate marketing. “Customers can now develop innovative, low-cost PCI Express designs taking full advantage of Altera’s programmable solutions and TI’s PHY chip.”

This low-cost solution builds upon TI’s and Altera’s existing portfolios of PCI Express offerings. TI offers the XIO1100 along with a complete line of PCI Express-compliant products targeted for a variety of applications such as PC add-in cards, communications, storage, industrial, test equipment, servers and other embedded system applications. Altera provides a range of complete FPGA solutions for a variety of x1, x4 and x8 PCI Express applications, including configurable PCI Express IP cores and development boards for endpoint, bridge, switch and root complex functionality.

More information about TI’s PCI Express portfolio can be found at www.ti.com/pciexpressalterapr. For more information about Altera’s Cyclone II FPGA family, please visit www.altera.com/cyclone2.

Programmable PCI Express Development Kit

A PCI Express development kit is available for order through Knott Systems (www.knottsystems.com). The kit includes Gerber layout files, schematics, a reference design, example drivers, TI’s XIO1100 PCI Express PHY and Altera’s Cyclone II FPGA. The Knott Systems PCI Express x1 Development Kit is priced at $1,500.

Pricing and Availability

Altera^® Cyclone II FPGAs are available in volume today. The TI XIO1100 PCI Express PHY is currently sampling with full production devices available in April. The Altera and TI PCI Express solution with a Cyclone II FPGA and XIO1100 PCI Express PHY will be available from Altera, TI and authorized distributors. Pricing will be under $15 (EP2C20 device for $9.50; XIO1100 PHY for $5.50) for volume orders of 500Ku.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) provides innovative digital signal processing (DSP) and analog technologies to meet our customers’ real-world signal processing requirements. In addition to semiconductors, the company’s businesses include Sensors and Controls, and Educational and Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries. More information is available at www.ti.com.

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 over 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at www.altera.com.