Altera and PLDApplications Announce First FPGA PCI Express Solution to Pass All PCI-SIG Compliance and Interoperability Tests

Captured Eye Patterns From PCI-SIG PCI Express Electrical Compliance Test Using Stratix GX (click image to zoom by 1.9x)

San Jose, Calif., November 15, 2004—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) and PLDApplications (PLDA) today announced that the first complete PCI-SIG tested FPGA PCI Express solution is now available. The solution developed by Altera and PLDA will be added to the official PCI-SIG PCI Express Integrators List.

"This is an important milestone for the adoption of PCI Express into embedded applications," said Craig Lytle, vice president of solution engineering at Altera. "Designers looking for PCI Express now have an FPGA-optimized solution from PLDA, the top independent PCI and PCI-X FPGA IP vendor worldwide for the last four years."

At the September PCI-SIG compliance workshop, Altera's Stratix® GX FPGA device family and the PLDA PCI Express IP Core passed all of the PCI-SIG PCI Express compliance tests. Administered by PCI-SIG, these are a rigorous suite of tests of the electrical, data link, and transaction layers of the protocol, combined with interoperability testing in fifteen real-world systems.

"PLDA is very pleased to partner with Altera, who continues to demonstrate the best FPGA device support for PCI Express," said Arnaud Schleich, vice president of sales and marketing for PLDA. "During the PCI-SIG electrical test, which tested the Stratix GX serializer/deserializer (SERDES), the generated eye patterns demonstrated the best margin seen during the entire week's testing."

The PLDA PCI Express IP Core is available for license today. A multi-project, royalty-free, perpetual FPGA PCI Express x4 IP license, including twelve months of technical support and upgrades, is priced at $24,990.00.

Altera is committed to providing the industry's most complete programmable PCI Express offering for computer, storage, communications, and general embedded applications. Available today are production released programmable devices, soft IP cores, and hardware development platforms that pass the PCI-SIG's rigorous PCI Express compliance tests.

PLDApplications, the world's second largest PCI IP core vendor, designs and sells a wide range of FPGA and ASIC interfacing solutions for the PCI and derivative markets (PCI Express, PCI-X, CompactPCI, and PC104/PC104+). The company offers complete solutions to a global market, including IP cores, hardware, software, consulting services, and comprehensive technical support provided directly by the IP designers.

PLDApplications provides proven and time saving solutions to its customers, including: Agere, Agilent, Alcatel, Cisco, HP, IBM, Intel, LSI Logic, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC Nokia, Philips, Siemens, Sony, ST, Sun, and Toshiba.

Founded in 1996, PLDApplications is located in Berkeley, California and Aix-en-Provence, France. Visit PLDApplications online at www.plda.com.

About Altera

Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) 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 www.altera.com.

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