Modelware's IX Bus Intellectual Property Core To Include Altera's Atlantic[tm] Interface

Modelware's IX Bus Intellectual Property Core To Include Altera's Atlantic[tm] Interface

Programmable Logic Support Now Available for Intel^® IXP1200 Network Processor

San Jose, Calif., July 25, 2001 -- Modelware Corporation, a member of the Altera Megafunction Partners Program (AMPP^SM), today announced that it is including Altera's Atlantic[tm] on-chip interface in its IX Bus intellectual property core, significantly reducing the design time needed to bridge with a variety of I/O interfaces to the widely adopted Intel^® IXP1200 Network Processor. Modelware's IX Bus core represents the seventeenth IP core to join Altera's rapidly growing family of cores that can be seamlessly joined together with the Atlantic interface.

"The Atlantic interface as a packet-based, on-chip interface is a natural fit for communications protocols," said Anthony Dalleggio, Executive VP of Modelware. "Adding the Atlantic interface to the local side of our IX Bus core makes sense because it allows designers to build bridges from the IXP1200 Network Processor to a large group of cores already incorporating the Atlantic interface."

The IX Bus developed by Intel was introduced on the IXP1200 Network Processor as a flexible 64-bit or dual 32-bit interface, supporting attachment of MACs, framers, custom logic devices, or additional IXP1200 Network Processors.

"Now, with the Atlantic Interface, Modelware's IX Bus core for the IXP1200 Network Processors offers designers a flexible option for bridging among a variety of different protocol interfaces that could significantly cut the development time of communications products even further," said Doug Davis, general manager of Intel's Network Processor Division.

"Atlantic offers designers simple and efficient 'network glue' to speed their systems to market using Modelware's IX Bus core and the Intel IXP1200 Network Processor," said Craig Lytle, vice president of the intellectual property business unit at Altera. "With growing support for Atlantic in the IP design community, the time to develop and integrate IP into complex networking systems is significantly decreasing."

Modelware and Altera also recently announced the immediate availability of Flexbus Level 3[tm] and Flexbus Level 4[tm] intellectual property cores that support Altera's new Atlantic on-chip interface.

About the Atlantic Interface

Altera's Atlantic interface is a scalable, high-speed on-chip interface for packet and cell transfer. Optimized for programmable logic devices, the Atlantic interface allows designers to quickly and easily build bridges between incompatible devices, as well as facilitate the user's integration of intellectual property with a simple, clearly defined, and supported interface.

The Atlantic interface is designed as a datapath bus for packet transfer between communications IP. Defined with minimal overhead, the Atlantic interface utilizes approximately 10 control signals in addition to a variable width data bus, and an optional address bus. The control signals include parity, start-of-packet, end-of-packet, error, empty, enable or data valid or data available signals. The Atlantic interface utilizes a simple four-way handshake as flow control and is scalable all the way up to 40Gb/s and beyond. The Atlantic functional specification is an open standard available on the Altera web site and is supported by the Altera Megafunction Partners Program (AMPP). http://www.altera.com/literature/fs/fs_atlantic.pdf.

About Altera

Altera Corporation, The Programmable Solutions Company^®, was founded in 1983 and is a leading supplier of programmable logic devices (PLDs). Altera's CMOS-based PLDs are user-programmable semiconductor chips that enhance flexibility and reduce time-to-market for companies in the communications, computer peripheral, and industrial markets. By using high performance devices, software development tools, and sophisticated intellectual property cores, system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions can be created with embedded processors, memory, and other complex logic together on a single PLD. Altera common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ALTR. More information on Altera is available on the Internet at http://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 holders.

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Editor Contacts:
 

Bruce Fienberg Altera Corporation  (408) 544-6866 bfienber@altera.com

Susannah Stanford PR21 (415) 369-8105 susannah.stanford@pr21.com