SerialLite Reference Design Simplifies Serial I/O Implementation in High-Performance FPGAs

Altera and Innocor Announce Immediate Availability of Open-Source Reference Design

San Jose, Calif., and Almonte, Ontario, February 10, 2004—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) and Innocor today announced the immediate availability of an open source reference design for the SerialLite protocol. Innocor, an Altera Megafunction Partner Program (AMPPSM) member, optimized the SerialLite reference design for Altera's Stratix™ GX devices. The reference design provides designers with a quick solution for applications implementing high-speed serial links on backplanes. The SerialLite reference design is available for free, as open-source Verilog, with an open-source test bench and complete documentation. Key features include a point-to-point serial packet-based protocal, low overhead, and an optional retry-on-error for priority packets, unavailable in any other reference design.

"Leveraging their expertise with communications protocols, Innocor has developed a modular reference design that highlights the scalability of SerialLite," said Craig Lytle, vice president of the intellectual property business unit at Altera. "This reference design enables designers to implement SerialLite quickly and effectively."

"We worked closely with Altera to develop the SerialLite open-source reference design which significantly reduces the design time necessary to bring up high-speed serial interfaces," said Randy Gill, president of Innocor. "Designers can implement SerialLite in Altera's Stratix GX devices using less than two percent of the available logic-leaving a huge percentage of the device for the designer to work with."

Pricing and Availability

The SerialLite reference design is available for free and can be downloaded now from both the Altera® website at www.altera.com and the SerialLite.org web site at www.seriallite.org. For more information about SerialLite, its applications, and its specification, visit www.seriallite.org.

About Stratix GX Devices

The Stratix GX family is Altera’s second-generation embedded transceiver family and is based on a 0.13-micron process technology with 1.5-V core voltage. Stratix GX devices have up to 20 embedded 3.125-Gbps transceivers and up to 45 differential I/O pins with dedicated DPA capability supporting up to 1-Gbps source-synchronous data transfers. For more information about the Stratix GX device family, visit www.altera.com/stratixgx.

About Innocor

Innocor is an industry-leading designer of test equipment, development systems and core technology for broadband and legacy telecom applications. Established in 1995, Innocor operates three lines of business: Broadband Test Equipment, Engineering Design Services and FPGA Cores. For more information please visit www.innocor.com.

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.

Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylized Altera logo, specific device designations and all other words that are identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective holder.