Altera Delivers Military Temperature FPGAs

Company’s “Enhanced COTS” Strategy Demonstrates Commitment to Military Market; Stratix Devices Now Offering This Segment High-Density and Performance

San Jose, Calif., March 21, 2006—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced qualification of its high-performance Stratix^® FPGA family for military temperature operation requirements, from -55°C to +125°C. This increase in operational temperature support broadens the applications for Stratix FPGAs and builds upon Altera’s offerings in the military and aerospace market including:

• Device security encryption features for anti-tampering
• Bare die sales
• Single-event upset (SEU) detection
• Digital signal processing (DSP) performance
• Availability of reliable leaded packaging technologies

“This military temperature qualification for Stratix FPGAs gives designers of military and aerospace applications even more reason for using Altera solutions,” said Don Faria, Altera’s senior vice president, business units. “It is one of several key steps setting our Department of Defense supplier approach apart from others. We’re going notably further than traditional COTS requirements with our military strategy. It is based on an intentionally deeper understanding of and provision for the special needs of this specific market sector.”

Military and aerospace supplier requirements extend beyond device feature capabilities to include extended life-cycle management, increased demonstration of quality and reliability measures, longer-lead product change notice cycles and the need for increased supply chain responsiveness and responsibilities. Altera actively addresses these demands as part of its enhanced commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) strategy that focuses on providing complete semiconductor solutions for advanced military applications.

“Altera’s efforts to address military and aerospace market needs enabled us to deliver flexibility, reduced risk, and high reliability for long life-cycle modernization programs such as our F-16 AN/APG-68 Programmable Signal Radar Processor (MPSP), which recently earned Safety of Flight Certification and entered into formal flight testing,” said Brad Dyer, vice president of operations at CPU Technology, Inc.  “Altera’s proactive approach allowed us to exploit the programmability and high capacity of their Stratix II FPGAs using our SystemLab^TM suite of design tools, helping us to achieve the desired level of flexibility in a very complex program development.”

Altera qualifies Stratix devices across the commercial, industrial and military temperature ranges, and verifies that they perform within stringent specifications. The company provides military temperature range operation through the use of industrial-grade Stratix devices compiled to a slower speed-grade. Using standard industrial devices for military operation enables major price and life-cycle advantages compared to dedicated military devices. Initial military temperature support is being offered for the EP1S30F780, EP1S40F1020 and the EP1S60F1020 members of the Stratix family.

For more information about Stratix devices and the Altera^® enhanced COTS initiative, please visit www.altera.com/stratixwww.altera.com/Enhanced-COTS.

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