Altera HardCopy Devices Speed Development of New Motorola Horizon II BTS Portfolio

Low-Cost Structured ASICs from Altera Enable Motorola to Meet Design Objectives and Expedite Development of New GSM Basestations

San Jose, Calif., December 8, 2003—HardCopy™ structured ASICs from Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) have enabled Motorola to speed time-to-market and begin volume production of its new generation Horizon II base transceiver station (BTS), which it introduced this summer.  Delivering highly integrated digital functions with less development risk than other custom solutions, HardCopy devices played a key role in Motorola’s ability to build and launch a market-leading portfolio of feature-rich global service for mobile (GSM) communications BTS solutions.

“Our design goal for Horizon II was to incorporate support for multiple network technologies including GSM, GPRS, and EDGE, while keeping the product price competitive,” said Tom Hull, director of engineering for the BTS Center of Excellence for Motorola’s Global Telecom Solutions Sector (GTSS).  “We chose Altera^® HardCopy devices over several other component solutions, including other structured ASICs, because they enabled us to cost effectively build in the functionality and flexibility to meet our customers’ needs.  We have verified the operation of our HardCopy devices and are incorporating them into full production.”

The Horizon II BTS meets the needs of GSM operators today by providing a well-designed solution that addresses their current 2G and 2.5G challenges while minimizing the need for additional GSM capital investment in the future.  The Horizon II BTS is a flexible solution that tackles system operators’ network migration challenges by supporting multiple wireless network implementations, including GSM, GPRS, and EDGE.  The high degree of integration provided by the Altera solution helped Motorola offer one of the smallest 12-carrier cabinets in the industry, increasing the attractiveness of the Horizon II by easing its deployment and minimizing installation costs at the cell site location.

“By including the flexibility in its Horizon II to support EDGE and achieve 3G-like speeds, Motorola demonstrated considerable foresight, which is what you would expect from an industry pioneer,” said Arun Iyengar, director of the wireless business unit at Altera.  “Altera’s HardCopy solution eliminates the price and schedule uncertainty of ASIC development, and lowers the costs and risks to cellular network equipment manufacturers as they invest today in products that will enable operators to handle the ever-increasing demand for data-related services.”

“Motorola joins the growing number of industry leaders who have selected HardCopy devices as the best solution to meet time-to-market demands while keeping manufacturing costs and development risks to a minimum,” said Peter Woo, director of the HardCopy product group at Altera.  “Motorola’s choice of HardCopy devices clearly demonstrates Altera’s ability and commitment to deliver high-volume custom logic solutions to achieve extremely competitive end-products.”

About HardCopy Devices
HardCopy devices are a low-risk, cost-effective alternative to ASICs for high-volume production where time-to-market is critical. Through a combination of proprietary silicon design and seamless migration processes, Altera helps customers move from a programmable solution to a reduced-cost, custom implementation of their design. Compared to other alternatives, HardCopy devices help customers move their products from prototype to high-volume production faster while minimizing additional verification and qualification work. For more information about HardCopy devices, visit www.altera.com/hardcopy.

About Altera
Celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, 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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