Altera Announces First Quarter Results

SAN JOSE, Calif., Apr 20, 2010  --Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced first quarter sales of $402.3 million, up 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009 and up 52 percent from the first quarter of 2009. New product sales increased 29 percent sequentially. First quarter net income was $153.2 million, $0.50 per diluted share, compared with net income of $103.0 million, $0.34 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009 and $44.0 million, $0.15 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009.

Cash flow from operating activities was $132.7 million. Altera ended the quarter with $1.7 billion in cash and short-term investments.

Altera's board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share payable on June 1, 2010 to shareholders of record on May 10, 2010.

"We are benefiting from growth in our 65-nm and 40-nm FPGAs as customer designs transition from prototyping into production. First quarter revenues are at an all time high for Altera," said John Daane, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board. "Our just announced 28-nm Stratix V FPGAs offer the potential to extend Altera's technology leadership as we continue to expand the applications that can be served by programmable logic."

Several recent accomplishments mark the company's continuing progress.

• With the announcement of the 28-nm Stratix(R) V FPGA family, Altera extends its technology leadership with unique solutions for high-bandwidth applications while reducing cost and power. This new family includes four variants that address a broad range of applications in the wireless/wireline communications, military, broadcast, computer and storage, test and medical markets. Stratix V FPGAs offer up to 1.6 Tbps serial switching capability, more than 1 million logic elements as well as integrated transceivers operating up to an industry-leading 28 Gbps. The devices additionally incorporate the industry's highest level of application-targeted hard intellectual property for increased system integration and performance without the cost and power penalty. Stratix V FPGAs also feature Embedded HardCopy Blocks. This unique methodology gives Altera the ability to rapidly harden logic-intensive or standardized functions within the FPGA to reduce cost and power. Quartus(R) II software support for Stratix V FPGAs will be available this quarter. Stratix V samples will begin to ship in the first quarter of 2011.
• All members of the 40-nm Arria(R) II GX FPGA family are now shipping in production volumes. With these devices and the Stratix IV family shipping in volume, Altera remains the broadest supplier of 40-nm FPGAs in the industry. The Arria II GX family delivers to customers a low-power, low-cost and high-performance FPGA solution specifically targeting 3-Gbps transceiver applications. Arria II GX FPGAs currently serve a wide variety of high-volume applications in the broadcast, military, wireless and wireline markets.
• Stratix IV FPGAs continue to win praise from the editorial community. Editors from Application of Electronics Technique (AET), China Electronics News (CEN) and VME and Critical Systems Magazine recognized the 40-nm Stratix IV family for a number of innovations, including its density, performance and power advantage, and its leadership position in leading-edge process technology.Since devices started shipping in December 2008, 10 electronics trade publications have presented Stratix IV FPGAs with 12 product and technology awards. The latest recognitions include:

- Stratix IV GX FPGAs received AET''s Best Programmable Logic Device Award and were included in the magazine's 2009 Leading Electronic Products issue. AET readers and industry experts recognized Stratix IV GX FPGAs for achievements in performance, power, innovation and wide market application.

- Altera was presented with CEN's Leading FPGA Technology Award as part of its 2009 Editor's Choice Award selection. The magazine's editors recognized Altera for its breakthroughs in delivering the industry's first 40-nm FPGA in volume production in 2009, as well as the innovations Altera made to Cyclone(R) FPGAs and Quartus II software.

- Stratix IV FPGAs received VME and Critical Systems Magazine's Editor's Choice Award. The publication's editors recognized Altera's high-density Stratix IV EP4SE820 FPGA for its technology leadership. The FPGA features 820K logic elements and offers the highest performance and lowest power in its class.

Business Outlook for the Second Quarter 2010

Sequential Sales Growth	Up 8% to 12%
Gross Margin	71% to 72%
Research and Development	$64 to 65 million
SG&A	$63 to 64 million
Tax Rate	13% to 15%

Financial Tables

To read financial tables, click here

Conference Call and Quarterly Update:

A conference call will be held today at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the quarter's results and management's current business outlook. The webcast and subsequent replay will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at http://www.altera.com. A telephonic replay of the call may be accessed later in the day by calling (719) 457-0820 and referencing confirmation code 258712. The telephonic replay will be available for two weeks following the live call.

Altera's second quarter business update will be issued in a press release available after the market close on June 7, 2010.

About Altera

Altera programmable solutions enable system and semiconductor companies to rapidly and cost-effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Find out more about Altera's FPGA, CPLD and ASIC devices at http://www.altera.com.