• Customers Now have Access to Pre-Optimized IP Cores for use with
Excalibur™ ARM®-based Devices

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2001-- Embedded designers now have access to a suite of intellectual property (IP) cores optimized for use with Altera Corporation's (Nasdaq:ALTR - news) Excalibur(TM) ARM®-based devices. Through the Altera Megafunction Partnership Program (AMPP), IP leaders such as Eureka Technology, Mentor Graphics, PLDApplications, inSilicon Corporation, and NewLogic Technologies worked closely with Altera engineers to optimize IP from their extensive portfolios for use with the Excalibur ARM-based devices. Customers can now streamline and facilitate the rapid development of system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions with access to these pre-optimized IP cores in a programmable logic device (PLD) environment.

"Altera's AMPP(SM) partners always make a significant contribution to the development of important IP cores that simplify design integration and implementation," said Craig Lytle, vice president of the IP business unit at Altera. "Used in conjunction with Altera's Excalibur ARM-based devices, these partner IP cores give our customers comprehensive solutions for SOPC designs."

Based on the most widely adopted embedded RISC architecture, Altera's Excalibur ARM-based family of embedded processor PLDs provides single chip-integration of a high-performance 200 MHz ARM922T processor core, programmable logic, on-chip memory, and key peripherals. This week Altera began shipping in volume production the first member of its ARM-based Excalibur embedded processor solutions, giving embedded designers the ability to use a superior programmable logic design approach in applications that would otherwise require an ASIC.

"Eureka Technology has worked hand-in-hand with Altera to develop IP cores fully optimized for performance and size when used in conjunction with the Altera Excalibur ARM-based devices," said Simon Lau, president and CEO of Eureka Technology. "Eureka now offers several IP cores designed specifically for the ARM AHB bus. We recognize the value that Altera's Excalibur embedded processor solutions brings to our mutual customers in helping them reduce the time to market of their ARM-based system solutions."

"Through the AMPP program, we worked closely with our engineers to optimize or intellectual property cores for use in Altera's Excalibur embedded processor solutions," said Stephane Hauradou, chief technical officer at PLDApplications. "Altera customers can now design complete system-on-a-programmable-chip-solutions (SOPC) utilizing our industry-leading intellectual property cores."

Availability

Numerous IP cores optimized for use with Excalibur ARM-based devices are available today, such as USB 1.1, USB 2.0, Bluetooth, PCI, UART and I2C. For full details on all available cores and to obtain free evaluations please visit Altera's website at http://www.altera.com/ipmegastore.

Altera Megafunction Partnership Program (AMPP) Program

The Altera Megafunction Partners Program, established in August 1995, was created to bring the advantages of design reuse to users of Altera PLDs. AMPP is an alliance between Altera and developers of IP cores that encourages megafunction development. Altera provides technical information and training to the AMPP partners, who create and support IP cores targeted for Altera programmable logic devices. Currently, there are over 30 AMPP partners who offer more than 100 megafunctions. Customers may request a free evaluation of any of these cores through Altera's megafunction listings at http://www.altera.com/ipmegastore.

About Altera

Altera Corporation, The Programmable Solutions Company®, was founded in 1983 and is a leading supplier of programmable logic devices (PLDs). Altera's CMOS-based PLDs are user-programmable semiconductor chips that enhance flexibility and reduce time-to-market for companies in the communications, computer peripheral, and industrial markets. By using high performance devices, software development tools, and sophisticated intellectual property cores, system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions can be created with embedded processors, memory, and other complex logic together on a single PLD. Altera common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ALTR. More information on Altera is available on the Internet at http://www.altera.com.