Altera Ships 10 Millionth Cyclone FPGA to Harmonic Inc.

Maintains Market Leadership With Fastest-Ramping Programmable Logic Family

San Jose, Calif., March 21, 2005—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced that it has shipped more than 10 million low-cost Cyclone™ FPGAs in just over two years. Shipment of Cyclone devices achieved this milestone faster than any previous product family in the programmable logic industry. The Cyclone family has shipped to over 4,600 customers and is currently out-shipping the nearest competing FPGA offering by more than a five-to-one ratio. With their unprecedented low-cost and high-functionality, Cyclone devices are used in applications previously not available to FPGAs, such as DVD players, camcorders, displays, TV sets, and other consumer electronics devices.

“The exceptional value provided by Cyclone devices was a contributing factor in making our Divicom Ion Multichannel MPEG-2 Encoder a very cost-effective product,” said Tom Lattie, DiviCom Ion product manager at Harmonic Inc. “Cyclone devices are a great solution thanks to the competitive price and availability in high volumes.”

Built from the ground up for low cost, Altera’s Cyclone FPGA family set the standard for low-cost FPGAs. The company engaged with more than 100 customers globally during the product definition process to determine the most desired features and price points. The information gathered has benefited Altera’s customers, who can use the Cyclone family as a risk-free and price-competitive alternative to ASICs and ASSPs.

“Altera set out to dramatically alter the programmable logic market by developing the first low-cost FPGA product that could address mainstream, high-volume applications,” said Steve Mensor, Altera’s senior director of low-cost FPGA marketing. “Shipping 10 million units in such a short time is clear evidence that we succeeded. Customers looking for even lower costs and a broader range of high-volume products can benefit from Cyclone II, Altera’s second generation of low-cost FPGAs.”

To read what customers are saying about the Cyclone device family, please visit: www.altera.com/corporate/cust_successes/customer_quotes/cqt-index.html.

For more information about Cyclone devices, please visit: www.altera.com/cyclone.

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 www.altera.com.

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