“The combination of FPGAs and processors is rapidly gaining momentum to create new levels of customization in embedded system design,” said Vince Hu, vice president of product and corporate marketing at Altera Corporation. “With the Embedded Initiative, Altera enables designers in markets such as automotive, industrial, military, and wireless networking to easily leverage a powerful ecosystem of processor, operating system, and IP support—all within a single design flow—and reduce total system cost, shorten time to market, and increase system flexibility.”.
Collaborations to Improve the Design Flow:
As part of its initiative, Altera will revitalize its existing embedded systems partner programs by introducing the powerful ecosystems of ARM, Intel, and MIPS Technologies, as well as the FPGA world. Furthermore, Altera will collaborate with these companies to improve the design flow and enable access to the growing number of FPGA-compatible embedded processing options.
Intel recently provided detailed information about its new configurable Atom-based processor. This processor consists of a series of Intel Atom E600 processors combined with an Altera FPGA on a multi-chip package. The package provides greater flexibility for customers who want to incorporate their own I/O or acceleration, and allows developers to differentiate their designs by reacting quickly to changing requirements.
“Flexibility is critical for embedded system designers, and FPGA technology offers an additional option,” said Doug Davis, vice president and general manager of the Embedded Communications Group at Intel. “Intel recently announced the integration of an Altera FPGA into a multichip package with an Intel Atom-based processor to continue delivering smart, flexible solutions for embedded system developers.”.
Agreement with ARM.
Also as a new development on launch day, Altera announced that it signed an agreement this year with ARM Ltd. to license several technologies, including the Cortex-A9 microprocessor. Altera will supply products integrating rugged subsystems based on the Cortex-A9 processor with 28nm FPGA technology. More detailed information about these ARM-based devices will be available throughout 2011.
“ARM recognizes the importance of the FPGA community and is eager to work with our partners to provide the flexibility that embedded system designers need,” said Eric Schorn, vice president of marketing for ARM’s processor division. “By combining ARM IP’s leadership in low-power, high-performance processors with Altera’s expertise in FPGA technology, we can bring a new dimension of flexibility with a common software workflow to accelerate the development of numerous applications for software developers and hardware designers.”.
Altera has also expanded its soft processor core offerings and will introduce the MP32 soft processor core, based on MIPS Technologies' MIPS32 processor architecture, in early 2011. The MP32 is the result of close collaboration between Altera, MIPS Technologies, and top-tier customers over the past year. It will complement Altera's Nios II embedded processor and partner soft CPU offerings available for Altera devices, and will significantly expand the number of operating systems and the volume of application code available for use with FPGAs.
“We are delighted that, through its license of the MIPS32 architecture, Altera is offering MP32 soft CPUs, which can provide outstanding architectural flexibility to today’s multi-core designs,” said Art Swift, vice president of marketing at MIPS Technologies. “With the accelerated integration of processors and programmable logic, the availability of the MIPS32 architecture on the Altera platform is an excellent choice for embedded system designers.”.
Qsys Tool Within Quartus II Software:
Throughout this quarter, Altera will deliver the Qsys system integration tool within its Quartus II development software. Qsys, which incorporates the first commercially available FPGA network-on-a-chip technology, will offer memory-mapped and data-path interconnects that replicate the capabilities of Altera's SOPC Builder tool while supporting standard IP interfaces such as AMBA. Qsys will leverage SOPC Builder's user-friendly interface and offer backward compatibility to facilitate adoption of existing embedded systems. Furthermore, this advanced interconnect technology will provide hierarchical design methodologies, incremental compilation, and partial reconfiguration. More detailed information about Qsys and the Embedded Initiative will be available during this quarter.
Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
This information contains forward-looking statements regarding the timing of Altera's product launches as set forth in the security provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated, including, but not limited to, dependence on product development schedules, software design performance and other tools, development technology and manufacturing capabilities of Altera and third parties, as well as changes in economic conditions and other risk factors discussed in documents filed by Altera with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available on Altera's website and are also available free of charge from the company. Forward-looking statements are as of the date of this disclosure, and, except as required by law, Altera undertakes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
