Now Shipping: New Cyclone II Development Kits for Nios II Embedded Processor, DSP, and PCI Designs

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced that Cyclone(TM) II development kits have begun shipping, enhancing its product offering for its second-generation low-cost FPGA family. Designers targeting Nios(R) II embedded processor, digital signal processing (DSP), and PCI designs will benefit from easy prototyping, quick development times, and low cost.

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"Cost and time-to-market are important issues for designers building low-cost, high-volume applications. The new Cyclone II development kits address these issues head-on," says Steve Mensor, Altera's senior director of low-cost FPGAs. "Altera's first-generation Cyclone family is the fastest ramping programmable logic family ever and we are confident that the availability of these kits will help the Cyclone II family to emulate this success."

The Cyclone II Development Kit Portfolio

All three Cyclone II development kits combine the capabilities of Altera's intellectual property (IP), boards, and development software to allow customers to take full advantage of the low-cost Cyclone II device family, the lowest static power FPGAs in the industry. Each kit includes a Cyclone II development board, a CD containing documentation and reference designs, a power supply, a USBBlaster(TM) download cable, and other cables. The kits also ship with Altera's Quartus(R) II design software and a suite of interface IP cores available from Altera.

  -- Nios II Development Kit, Cyclone II Edition -- Consuming as little as
     $0.35 of logic, the combination of the Nios II family of processors and
     the Cyclone II FPGA is 50 percent less cost than the nearest competing
     offering and is the lowest-cost soft embedded processor solution in the
     industry. The Nios II Development Kit, Cyclone II Edition provides
     everything needed for system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) development.
     The kit includes Altera's Nios II family of embedded processors; the
     Nios II development board, Cyclone II edition; the SOPC Builder system
     development tool; the Nios II integrated development environment (IDE);
     a library of standard microprocessor peripherals; and cables and
     accessories for developing and prototyping a wide range of price-
     sensitive embedded applications.
  -- DSP Development Kit, Cyclone II Edition -- The DSP Development Kit,
     Cyclone II Edition, takes full advantage of the dedicated DSP circuitry
     in the Cyclone II devices. The kit features Texas Instruments' (TI's)
     high-performance ADS5500 family of analog-to-digital (A/D) converters,
     delivering a complete development environment for DSP co-processing.
     The kit facilitates the entire design process from design conception
     through hardware implementation. The DSP Development Kit, Cyclone II
     Edition includes the Cyclone II DSP development board, the DSP Builder
     development tool, Quartus II development software, The MathWorks
     MATLAB/Simulink evaluation software, evaluation IP cores, system
     reference designs and labs, as well as power supplies, cables, and
     documentation.
  -- PCI Development Kit, Cyclone II Edition -- Altera's PCI Development
     Kit, Cyclone II Edition provides a flexible, low-cost FPGA development
     platform in a PCI short-card form factor. With a universal (3.3-V and
     5-V) PCI edge connector, the PCI Development Kit, Cyclone II Edition
     plugs into any standard PCI or PCI-X slot. The kit includes both a
     hardware reference design and Windows software drivers to accelerate
     development. Users can perform transactions between the PCI interface
     and DDR2 memory within minutes of opening the box. The kit can be used
     as a development platform for 32-bit and 64-bit PCI, PCI-X, DDR2 SDRAM,
     and Altera Megafunction Partners Program (AMPP(SM)) partner IP cores.

For more information about Cyclone II devices, please visit http://www.altera.com/cyclone2.

Pricing and Availability

All three Cyclone II development kits are available for ordering through Altera's distribution channel, sales representatives, and on Altera's eStore. The development kits are priced at $995 each. Further information about Altera's development kits is available at http://www.altera.com/devkits.

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 Contacts:
     Bruce Fienberg
     Altera Corporation
     408-544-6397
     newsroom@altera.com

CONTACT: Bruce Fienberg of Altera Corporation, +1-408-544-6397, or
newsroom@altera.com

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