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Altera Accelerates SOPC Development With New Quartus II Design Methodologies
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 2001--Altera
Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR) today introduced new design methodologies to
accelerate the development of next-generation
system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) designs. These methodologies
provide designers the ability to control place-and-route, automate
intellectual property (IP) integration, and optimize the workflow for
ARM®-based Excalibur(TM) embedded processor implementations.
``Customers are developing chips that include more functionality
than entire boards did a few years ago,'' said David Greenfield, Altera
director of tools marketing. ``As the complexity of SOPC designs
increases, the design methodology must evolve to support its
development with new techniques to address system-level challenges.''
As part of that evolution, the introduction today of Quartus® II
version 1.1 design software includes Altera's proprietary
LogicLock(TM) incremental design methodology and support for the
APEX(TM) II programmable logic device (PLD) family. LogicLock
incremental design allows the developer to lock down specific blocks
of logic to a selected region of the chip, providing performance
preservation and control over placement as changes are made to the
design. The LogicLock feature puts the control over placement into the
hands of the designer, providing an unprecedented ease of use and the
ability to optimize their designs for performance and area. Altera
will demonstrate the software at the Design Automation Conference next
week in Las Vegas (booth 2700).
Improved IP Integration
Altera is also introducing a comprehensive methodology for IP
integration. This includes automation tools that accelerate access to
evaluation versions of MegaCore® and AMPP(SM) products directly from
the Quartus II software and GUI-driven support for third-party
synthesis of these cores. Quartus II version 1.1 also provides the
capability to simulate evaluation versions of Altera IP in any
third-party simulation environment. To increase support for
communication system design, Altera is developing a seamless interface
between leading DSP algorithmic design and simulation environments and
the Quartus II software. This flow provides modeling capabilities of
Altera megafunctions in the DSP-specific environments, as well as the
ability to export the DSP designs to the Quartus II software for
synthesis, simulation, and place-and-route trade-off analysis.
``These new innovations transform what has traditionally been a
serious engineering challenge for ASIC design into a push-button
exercise for programmable logic,'' said Craig Lytle, vice president of
Altera's intellectual property business unit.
The final addition to Altera's methodology capabilities extends
the scope of Altera's design environment to include embedded software
design. Altera has made a version of the ARM Development Suite tools
available as a standard benefit of the Altera Subscription Program.
Customers who maintain an active subscription will have access to
support for embedded software design tools for the ARM-based Excalibur
embedded processor solutions.
Altera development tools will also continue to focus on enhancing
the placement and routing algorithms to provide faster fMAX
performance and reduced compile times. Industry leadership in these
areas is a key component of Altera's best-in-class development
software. Quartus II software releases during 2001 will enhance
placement algorithms to provide an additional 20 percent performance
boost, providing a tighter link between synthesis and placement. These
enhancements provide a direct performance boost for Altera's APEX
architectures.
Pricing and Availability
Altera's Quartus II version 1.1 software will ship to all
customers on active subscription in July. Altera's software
subscription program simplifies the process of obtaining Altera
development tools by consolidating all software products and
maintenance charges into one annual subscription payment. The annual
subscription for the Altera development tools is $2,000 for a
node-locked PC license, which includes full-featured Quartus II and
MAX+PLUS® II development software, OEM synthesis tools from
Exemplar, OEM simulation tools from ModelTechnology, and 12 months of
software upgrades. New or existing customers may obtain a software
subscription at the Programmable eStore on the Altera web site,
http://www.altera.com, or from Altera distributors worldwide.
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.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains ``forward-looking statements'' that are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are
generally preceded by words that imply a future state such as
``expected'' or that imply that a particular future event or events will
occur such as ``will.'' Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking
statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty, including
without limitation the risk that future performance is dependent on
product development schedules, the design performance of software and
other tools, as well as the company's and third parties' development
technology and manufacture capabilities. Please refer to the company's
Securities and Exchange Commission filings, copies of which are
available from the company without charge.
Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, Quartus, Excalibur,
LogicLock, APEX, MegaCore, AMPP, and specific device designations, are
trademarks and/or service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and
other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective
holder.
ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective holders.
Note: In ``fMAX,'' ``MAX'' is subscript.
Contact:
Altera Corporation, San Jose
Bruce Fienberg, 408/544-6866
bfienber@altera.com
or
PR21
Matthew Stotts, 415/369-8117
matthew.stotts@pr21.com
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