Altera Completes Rollout of Low-Cost Cyclone II FPGA Family

San Jose, Calif., October 17, 2005—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR) today announced that it has completed the rollout of its low-cost CycloneTM II FPGA family. All Cyclone II FPGAs are shipping today as production-qualified devices and are available for volume shipments from distributors worldwide. Altera rolled the entire Cyclone II family out in under seven months, meeting its commitment to deliver leading-edge products on time.

“When designing high-volume systems with low-cost FPGAs, designers need a reliable semiconductor provider who can meet scheduled delivery dates,” said Steve Mensor, Altera’s senior director of product marketing for low-cost FPGAs. “Working closely with its foundry partner TSMC, Altera continues to prove that it is the only FPGA vendor that can reliably roll out advanced products on or ahead of schedule.”

With densities ranging from 4,608 to 68,416 logic elements (LEs), Cyclone II FPGAs provide the FPGA industry with new levels of system capabilities at prices more than 30 percent lower than competing FPGAs of equivalent density. The high densities and low prices of the devices allow designers to use Cyclone II FPGAs as an alternative to mid-density ASICs and ASSPs. Ideally suited for high-volume, low-power, price-sensitive end markets, Cyclone II FPGAs provide designers with great flexibility in designing consumer, wireless LAN, industrial and automotive applications.

Device Availability

The entire Cyclone II family is available in both leaded and lead-free packages. In addition to ordering volume shipments from distributors, customers can order small quantities for prototyping on Altera’s e-store at www.buyaltera.com. Cyclone II development kits for developing Nios® II embedded processor-based systems, digital signal processing (DSP) systems or PCI interfaces are available today. Designers can also take advantage of a large portfolio of intellectual property (IP) cores supporting Cyclone II devices that are directly accessible within the Quartus® II design software and available free for evaluation.

About Altera

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.