Altera Acquires Right Track CAD Corporation

SAN JOSE, Calif.----May 8, 2000--Altera Corporation announced today that it has acquired privately-held, Right Track CAD Corporation (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), a leading independent developer of architectural and computer aided design (CAD) tools for advanced programmable logic devices (PLDs). With the acquisition, Right Track CAD becomes the Altera Toronto Technology Center. While the acquisition will not have a material impact on Altera's ongoing results, a one-time in-process R&D charge and related transaction expenses will be recorded in the second quarter.

The formation of the Toronto Technology Center adds to Altera's existing worldwide R&D resources which are located at its headquarters in San Jose, and at already established technology centers in England, Malaysia, and the newly formed center in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (see related announcement dated 5/1/00: Altera Acquires DesignPRO Inc; Enhances SOPC Solutions for Optical Internetworking Applications). The Toronto Technology Center will work in conjunction with Altera's worldwide R&D facilities to enable accelerated development of future software and device architectures for system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions.

The Toronto Technology Center will encompass leading academic researchers from the University of Toronto as well as harness Right Track CAD's proven development experience in the design and layout of PLD architectures and high performance CAD tools. In a press release with Right Track CAD announced in February 2000, Altera reported more than a 30 percent design performance (fMAX) improvement, as well as up to 30 times faster timing-driven compilation for its MAX+PLUS® II software. With the acquisition, Dr. Jonathan Rose, president and CEO of Right Track CAD and professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, will serve as director of the Toronto Technology Center.

``We are extremely pleased to have Dr. Rose and the entire Right Track CAD organization join the Altera R&D team,'' said Tim Southgate, Altera vice president of software engineering. ``Their proven track record in both academia and the PLD industry will contribute greatly to the quality and capability of our SOPC design solutions.''

``Right Track CAD and Altera have proven to be very successful in working together on past development projects,'' said Jonathan Rose, Right Track CAD president and CEO. ``It was a natural transition for us to become the Toronto Technology Center, and ultimately work within Altera to co-develop leading-edge solutions for programmable logic devices.''

Safe Harbor Notice

This press release contains ``forward looking statements'' which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements are generally preceded by words such as ``expects,'' ``believes,'' ``anticipates,'' ``projects,'' or ``intends.'' Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty, including without limitation the risks that the Company's products will not satisfy customer demands and that other companies will develop products with greater functionality than those offered by the Company. Please refer to the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, copies of which are available from the Company without charge, for further information.

About Right Track CAD Corporation

Right Track CAD was founded in 1998 and focused on the development of CAD software tools and new architectures for PLDs. The markets served by the company included manufacturers of field-programmable devices as well as semiconductor chip vendors planning to add hardware reprogrammability features in their ASIC designs.

About Altera

Altera Corporation, The Programmable Solutions Company(TM), was founded in 1983 and is a leading supplier of programmable logic devices and associated logic development software tools. Programmable logic devices are semiconductor chips that can be programmed on-site, using software tools that run on personal computers or engineering workstations. User benefits include ease of use, lower risk, and fast time-to-market. Altera's CMOS-based programmable logic devices address high-speed, high-density and low-power applications in the telecommunications, data communications, computer peripheral, and industrial markets. Altera common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ALTR. More information on Altera can be obtained on the Internet at http://www.altera.com.

Note to Editors: Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, MAX+PLUS, and specific device designations are trademarks and/or service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.