Unprecedented Performance Increase a Result of New HyperFlex Architecture and Intel 14 nm Tri-Gate Process Technology

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 5, 2014 — (PRNewswire) — Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) today announced Stratix® 10 FPGA and SoC customers are successfully achieving the anticipated 2X core performance gain in their designs compared to previous generation high-performance programmable devices. Altera is working closely with several early access customers in multiple markets to benchmark their next-generation designs using Stratix 10 FPGA performance evaluation tools. The breakthrough leap in FPGA core performance customers are experiencing is a result of Intel's 14 nm Tri-Gate process technology and the groundbreaking Stratix 10 HyperFlex™ architecture.

HyperFlex – Altera's next-generation core fabric architecture for Stratix 10 devices – represents the FPGA industry's most significant leap in architectural innovations in over a decade and enables applications not possible using conventional FPGA architectures. Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs with the HyperFlex architecture are able to meet the demands of the most advanced, performance-critical applications in the networking, communications, broadcast, military, and compute and storage markets.

Early access customers are experiencing firsthand the significant performance gains that Stratix 10 devices deliver. Through the Stratix 10 FPGA early access program, Altera is working with several customers to run their existing designs through performance evaluation tools built for Stratix 10 FPGAs. The customer designs target a wide range of applications and leverage a variety of hardware design approaches, including ASIC replacement designs, traditional high-performance FPGA communication designs and high-throughput data center and computation designs. In all cases customers experienced at least a 2X jump in their design's performance using Stratix 10 FPGAs.

"Altera's claim of 2X performance improvements seemed unimaginable when we first engaged in its Stratix 10 FPGA early access program," said Bernd Liebetrau, Head of CoC Digital Integration at Rohde & Schwarz. "After only a few days working together and receiving great guidance from Altera technical staff, we were able to run one of our existing designs through Altera's design tools and experience over twice the performance that our design previously ran. This level of performance will open up new applications for us that were previously unheard of in an FPGA."

In addition to benchmarking customer designs, Altera has also optimized several of its soft IP cores for the Stratix 10 HyperFlex architecture to deliver similar 2X performance gains. Altera's optical transport network (OTN) IP portfolio, running at 350 MHz in previous generation high-performance FPGAs, is achieving over 700 MHz performance with Stratix 10 devices. Altera's 400 GbE IP, currently running with a 1024-bit wide data path in Stratix V FPGAs, operates with a 512-bit wide data path at 2X the performance with the HyperFlex architecture, delivering the same high throughput at significantly reduced area utilization within the programmable core fabric.   

Patrick Dorsey, senior director of product marketing at Altera added, "We realize we were bold when we stated a 2X breakthrough in logic performance was achievable through architectural innovation and process technology leadership. Working side-by-side with customers, we have jointly confirmed what is possible with our next-generation Stratix 10 FPGA and SoC platform, and the results are remarkable."

About Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs 

Leveraging Intel's 14 nm Tri-Gate process and the HyperFlex architecture, Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs are designed to enable the most advanced, highest performance applications in the communications, military, broadcast and compute and storage markets, while slashing system power. Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs deliver 2X the core performance of previous generation high-performance devices. For high-performance systems that have strict power budgets, Stratix 10 devices allow customers to achieve up to a 70 percent reduction in power consumption compared with Stratix V FPGAs. Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs also provide the industry's highest levels of system integration, which include:

• The highest density monolithic device with greater than four million logic elements (LEs).
• Over 10 TeraFLOPs of single-precision, hardened floating point DSP performance.
• More than 4X serial transceiver bandwidth compared to previous generation FPGAs, including 28-Gbps backplane capable transceivers and a path to 56-Gbps transceivers.
• A 3^rd-generation high-performance, quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 processor system.
• Multi-die solutions capable of integrating DRAM, SRAM, ASIC, processors and analog components in a single package.

Availability

Stratix 10 FPGA early access design software will be available for customer use in summer 2014. For additional information regarding Stratix 10 FPGAs and SoCs, or to join the early access program, contact your local sales representative or visit www.altera.com.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Stratix 10 devices and the availability of early access design software that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty that can cause actual results to differ from those currently anticipated, as discussed in Altera's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, copies of which are posted on Altera's website and are otherwise available from the company without charge.

About Altera

Altera® programmable solutions enable designers of electronic systems to rapidly and cost effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Altera offers FPGAs, SoCs, CPLDs, ASICs and complementary technologies, such as power management, to provide high-value solutions to customers worldwide. Visit http://www.altera.com.

ALTERA, ARRIA, CYCLONE, ENPIRION, MAX, MEGACORE, NIOS, QUARTUS and STRATIX words and  logos are trademarks of Altera Corporation and registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other words and logos identified as trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective holders as described at  www.altera.com/legal.

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Steve Gabriel
Altera Corporation
(408) 544-6846
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