Altera Begins Shipping Industry's First High-Density 90-nm FPGAs to Customers

June 30, 2004

Altera Corporation announced that it has begun shipping its new Stratix® II family, the industry’s highest density and fastest FPGAs, and the first FPGAs to use the 90-nm process with high-performance, low-k dielectric materials. Stratix II devices are 50 percent faster and offer more than twice the logic capacity of competing FPGA products. Bucking the trend of many companies struggling to build 90-nm products, Altera’s methodical design approach with foundry partner TSMC and its advanced design-for-manufacturing techniques have yielded fully functional Stratix II devices on the first pass. Altera established a track record of on-schedule product rollouts with the first generation Stratix and Cyclone™ devices, both built on the 0.13-micron process, a technology node where Altera holds a commanding market share. This track record continues with the delivery of the first Stratix II device, the EP2S60.

“We have received our first Stratix II devices, and look forward to incorporating them into our next-generation products,” said Roland Steffen, executive vice president, head of test and measurement division at Rohde and Schwarz. “Altera has done an impressive job of shipping their products on schedule, which was a critical factor in our decision to use the Stratix II family. The Stratix II architecture will enable us to achieve better performance, higher integration, and lower costs, while Altera’s clear commitment to on-time delivery will allow us to meet aggressive development and production schedules.”

Manufactured on 300-mm wafers using TSMC’s standard 90-nm process technology, which features Applied Materials’ Black Diamond® low-k dielectric, Stratix II devices were architected with an entirely new logic structure consisting of adaptive logic modules (ALMs). Altera designed the new architecture specifically for the 90-nm process to offer the highest possible performance and increased logic efficiency while managing the power consumption. Altera’s ability to ship parts to customers only four weeks after receiving first silicon from TSMC highlights the robustness of the process and is a good indication that the shipping schedule for the rest of the Stratix II family will be on target.

“The shipping of the EP2S60 is a major milestone in the programmable logic industry,” said Erik Cleage, Altera’s senior vice president of marketing. “Altera’s ability to ship high-density products to customers using state-of-the-art, 90-nm, low-k technology underscores Altera’s leadership in bringing innovative products to the market.”

Source: http://www.altera.com/