Altera Unveils Industry's Fastest Programmable Logic HyperTransport Interface

Industry's Only IP Core Supporting HyperTransport Version 1.03 is Shipping Today

Platform Conference, San Jose, Calif., July 16, 2002 --Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today unveiled the fastest HyperTransport™ solution on the market. Altera's 12.8 Gbps HyperTransport technology running on a Stratix ™ EP1S25 device will be shown in a live demonstration at the Platform Conference in San Jose.

"Altera's Stratix devices and HyperTransport intellectual property allow our customers to integrate the BCM1250 processor in a wide range of applications through its HyperTransport interface," said Krishna Anne, strategic marketing manager at Broadcom's Broadband Processor Business Unit. "Altera's design expertise with their HyperTransport technology shows their continuing commitment to provide leading edge interface solutions."

In addition, Altera announced the availability of the programmable logic industry's only HyperTransport intellectual property core (IP) supporting version 1.03. Altera's new MegaCore® function supports the complete HyperTransport protocol and is fully compliant with versions 1.03 and 1.01a of the HyperTransport specification. The MegaCore function is parameterizable with programmable configuration space, variable buffer sizes and supports Altera's Atlantic ™ on-chip bus interface. The HyperTransport MegaCore function consumes 10,000 logic elements (LEs) in a Stratix device and is shipping to customers today. HyperTransport interfaces are currently available on a wide range of devices, including network processors, co-processors, video chipsets, and ASICs.

"We are very pleased that Altera has been able to offer such a high performance Hypertransport interface IP function on programmable logic," said Gabriele Sartori, president of the Hypertransport Technology Consortium. "The Hypertransport interface is gaining popularity in the networking and storage marketplace for its speed and versatility."

"We see strong demand from customers for a high performance bridge between HyperTransport and a variety of other bus interfaces," said Justin Cowling, Altera's intellectual property marketing director. "Designed with the Atlantic interface, the HyperTransport core is easily bridgeable to our growing family of interface IP."

Other highlights at this two-day event include Altera's presentation titled "High-Performance, Reprogrammable HyperTransport Bridging Applications in FPGAs," delivered by senior product marketing engineer Eugene Ahn at the HyperTransport Consortium Developer Track on Wednesday, July 17 at 4:30 pm. This presentation will discuss the high-performance I/O capabilities that have rapidly become an essential element of system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) designs as the demand for data bandwidth continues to explode across many communications applications. For more information about Altera at the Platform Conference, please visit http://www.altera.com/education/events/northamerica/evt-platform.html .

Pricing and Availability

The HyperTransport IP MegaCore is now shipping to customers and will be available for general download from The IP MegaStore™ ( http://www.altera.com/IPmegastore ) in August 2002. A royalty-free, node locked, perpetual license for use in Altera devices will cost $17,995 (ordering code: IP-HT).

About Stratix Devices

Stratix devices are based on a 1.5-V, 0.13-micron, all-layer copper SRAM process, with densities ranging from 10,570 to 114,140 logic elements (LEs) and up to 10 Mbits of RAM. Stratix devices support various differential I/O electrical standards such as the LVDS, LVPECL, PCML and HyperTransport standards, as well as high-speed interfaces, including the UTOPIA IV, SPI-4 Phase 2, SFI-4, 10G Ethernet XSBI, RapidIO™, HyperTransport and other interfaces. More technical information about the Stratix device family is available at http://www.altera.com/stratix .

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 http://www.altera.com .

Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylized Altera logo, specific device designations and all other words that are identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. HyperTransport is a trademark of the HyperTransport Consortium. All other product or service names are the property of their respective holder.