Altera FPGAs Embedded in Harris Falcon III Radio Allow for Lower Size, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaP-C) and Enable NSA Type 1 Certification
San Jose, Calif., May 19, 2015—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced that its 28 nm Cyclone® V field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have been chosen by Harris Corporation for its newest Falcon® III wideband tactical radio.
The radio, currently in production, has been designated by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to be NSA Type-1 certified, enabling Harris to field the radio for secure voice and data communications.
Altera also announced it has successfully completed the NSA Information Assurance Directorate (IAD) Secure Implementation Guidelines (SIG) document, which provides unified government recommendations on the use of security settings in Altera FPGA and SoC products and how these products can be used most securely to mitigate security threats in system designs.
Harris Radio in a Smaller Package with Industry-Leading Longer Battery Life
Faced with weight, power and battery life constraints when designing applications for demanding military field operations, Harris chose Altera Cyclone V FPGAs to implement the radio modem and cryptography functionality. Altera’s Cyclone V FPGAs offer low power, small packaging and quick time-to-market, enabling Harris to deliver a smaller, lighter secure radio with a significantly longer battery life to soldiers in the field, ahead of the competition.
“Altera worked closely with Harris to meet the stringent requirements for this radio, offering programmable logic solutions that best fit SWaP-C requirements,” said Tom Kenny, VP of Engineering and Product Line Management at Harris. “Altera provided outstanding development support, along with the commitment to enable long-term volume supply of its products for years to come.”
“Our partnership with Harris, a premier supplier of tactical radios, enabled them to achieve NSA certification for this Falcon III wideband tactical radio while at the same time preparing for full-rate production,” said Ian Land, senior manager, Military, Aerospace and Government business unit at Altera. “With NSA’s approval of our 28-nm IAD SIG implementation guidelines, military and government customers such as Harris are better equipped to use Altera’s 28-nm products to address and mitigate threats in cyber security and secure communications applications.”
Altera Achieves Approval for NSA’s IAD SIG Document
Altera has completed the NSA’s IAD SIG process, which helps defense contractors develop and implement products adhering to the NSA’s guidelines. The NSA IAD SIG describes design and data security features unique to Altera 28-nm FPGAs and SoCs and provides guidelines for security policies based on typical scenarios. Altera is also working with the NSA IAD on SIG documents for 20-nm and 14-nm FPGAs and SoCs.
For information on Altera’s comprehensive FPGA and SoC product portfolio, including FPGAs, SoCs with embedded ARM® processors, Enpirion® power control solutions and the industry’s most extensive set of military system solutions, contact your local Altera sales representative.
About Altera
Altera® programmable solutions enable designers of electronic systems to rapidly and cost effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Altera offers FPGA, SoC, CPLD, and complementary technologies, such as power solutions to provide high-value solutions to customers worldwide. Visit Altera at www.altera.com.
