Altera, IFI, SMSC Partnership Provides FPGA-Based, MOST Interface

San Jose, Calif., May 30, 2006—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR), today announced the availability of the MediaLB intellectual property (IP) core developed in partnership with IFI and SMSC. The IP core eases implementation of the popular Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) bus protocol for automotive infotainment, networking and gateway applications.

“The MediaLB IP core, combined with Altera FPGAs, lets our customers quickly and efficiently implement their automotive electronic designs,” said Don Faria, senior vice president, business units with Altera. “This IP core substantially reinforces our automotive application strengths in this rapidly expanding sector.”

MOST networking technology is designed for new classes of automotive multimedia and other applications where efficient transport of streaming media is required. It provides a central control for multiple automotive peripheral applications including navigation, climate control, entertainment and night vision systems. The protocol enables devices to communicate with each other using a high-speed connection over plastic optical fiber (POF).

“This IP will open doors for further FPGA adoption in the automotive space, especially in the areas of infotainment and car networking where MOST is shaping up as the future bus standard,” said Peter Riekert, managing director of IFI.

Automotive electronics designers can easily apply the MOST IP core using the scalable IFI MediaLB interface with Altera CycloneTM II or Stratix® II FPGAs and SMSC INIC chips, such as the OS81050. The MediaLB interface macro implements both the physical- and link-layer requirements and can support up to 15 channels. It can be parameterized and integrated into Altera’s SOPC Builder system generation tool. An evaluation version can be downloaded from www.ifi-pld.de/IP/MediaLB/Registerm/registerm.html.

“IFI has done an excellent job implementing the MediaLB interface for Altera FPGAs,” said Dr. Christian Thiel, vice president and general manager of SMSC’s Automotive Infotainment Systems Group, formerly OASIS SiliconSystems. “The small and efficient IP will provide an economical and powerful solution to the automotive design community.”

About Altera

Altera’s programmable solutions enable system and semiconductor companies to rapidly and cost-effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Find out more at www.altera.com.

×
Semiconductor IP