Altera Stratix Devices Deliver High Performance for Maranti's CoreSTOR Network Storage Controller

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Altera Corporation's (NASDAQ: ALTR) Stratix(R) FPGAs provide critical performance benefits for Maranti's CoreSTOR network storage controller products, both companies announced today. Maranti, a leading provider of intelligent storage infrastructure solutions, used high-speed Stratix devices in their CoreSTOR products to set new performance levels for storage virtualization, including mirroring performance, I/O processing rate, and high availability compared to existing storage solutions.

"The superior performance of Altera's Stratix series of devices enable the Maranti CoreSTOR network storage controllers to deliver I/O processing rates that are unmatched in the storage industry," said Gary Archer, senior product manager, Maranti. "We evaluated other programmable logic offerings for our product, but none could deliver the speed, flexibility, and cost advantages of Altera's solution."

Testing and strategic consulting firm The Tolly Group certified in a recent report that Maranti's CoreSTOR 2000 achieves a processing rate of over 200,000 virtualized I/Os Per Second (IOPS) on a single Fibre Channel port, which is significantly higher than any other solution. The Tolly Group test was performed using a CoreSTOR 2000 and a Texas Memory Systems RamSan-320 solid-state disk subsystem, which also benefits from Altera(R) FPGA performance (see "Altera's Cyclone(TM) FPGAs Enable Performance Of The World's Fastest Storage" -- http://www.altera.com/corporate/news_room/releases/releases_archive/2003/produ cts/nr-Cyclone_TMS_PR.html (due to the length of this URL, you may need to cut and paste it into your browser)). The complete report from The Tolly Group is available at: http://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=204143

"Maranti's success with their CoreSTOR products illustrates the clear performance benefits provided by Altera's products," said David Greenfield, senior director of product marketing for Altera's high-density FPGAs. "The Stratix series of devices are the highest-performance FPGAs available, and leading-edge developers like Maranti are reaping demonstrable competitive advantages by relying on them to differentiate their products."

About the Stratix FPGA Series

The Stratix series of FPGAs are Altera's biggest and fastest programmable logic devices. The Stratix II, Stratix and Stratix GX device families offer customers high-performance logic, digital signal processing (DSP) functions, on-board memory and external memory support, as well as high-speed I/O transceivers. Each device family is built on TSMC's advanced processes for 90-nm and 130-nm chip designs. In addition to offering industry-leading FPGA performance, the Stratix FPGA series also provides a seamless migration path to Altera's low-cost, low-risk HardCopy(R) structured ASICs. To learn more about the performance leadership of Altera's programmable logic devices, visit http://www.altera.com/products/devices/performance/per-index.html.

About Maranti

Maranti's CoreSTOR system provides the industry's first enterprise-class network storage controller. CoreSTOR enables deployment of a highly scalable, highly available storage infrastructure, significantly reducing the total cost of ownership by delivering wire-speed virtualization, replication, and mirroring at every multi-protocol port. For more information about Maranti's proven solutions for data migration, data life cycle management, disaster recovery, and storage management, visit http://www.maranti.com/ or call a Maranti Solution Expert at 1.408.834.4000.

About Altera

Altera Corporation 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 http://www.altera.com/.

NOTE: Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylized Altera logo, specific device designations and all other words that are identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective holder.

   Editor Contact:
   Martin S. Won
   Altera Corporation
   (408) 544-6397
   newsroom@altera.com

CONTACT: Martin S. Won of Altera Corporation, +1-408-544-6397, or
newsroom@altera.com

Web site: http://www.maranti.com/

Web site: http://www.altera.com/