Altera Announces Sophia Systems' Support for Altera's Excalibur Embedded Processor Solutions

Sophia Systems Joins Altera's Excalibur Partner Program Providing Tools and Debug Support

San Jose, Calif., and Kanagawa, Japan, April 9, 2002 -- Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) and Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. (JASDAQ: Sophia) today announced the addition of Sophia Systems to Altera's Excalibur partner program. Sophia Systems brings its full in-circuit emulator (ICE) and processor trace support to Altera's ARM^®-based Excalibur^™ embedded processor solutions and ROM debug support to the Excalibur Nios^® soft core embedded processor.

Sophia Systems' UniSTAC^® tool for ARM-based Excalibur devices provides EmbeddedICE^™ and ETM9 trace support combined with Sophia's Watchpoint^® user interface and high-level language debugger. Watchpoint for Nios provides C/C++ and assembly-level debugging and support for the Nios on-chip debugging features when implemented in Altera's programmable logic devices (PLDs).

"By providing complete support for Altera's Excalibur embedded processor solutions, Sophia is forging a leadership position in tools for the development of embedded processor PLDs," said Tasuku Kashihira, general manger of the Design Automation Division at Sophia Systems. "We believe that both Altera's ARM-based Excalibur devices and Nios soft core embedded processors will be tremendously successful in the embedded systems industry. Sophia Systems is committed to providing industry-leading debugging solutions for Altera's customers."

Through the Excalibur partner program, Altera is bringing together industry leaders that offer operating systems, embedded software development tools, and EDA tools support for the ARM-based Excalibur embedded processor solutions and Nios soft core embedded processor.

"Our partnership with Sophia Systems will provide embedded systems designers a complete tool set and development environment for the creation of system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions, including high-density PLDs and easy-to-use integration, development, and debugging tools," said Joe Hanson, director of marketing and applications for Altera's Excalibur business unit. "Sophia Systems is now an instrumental partner providing our customers with leading software support and debugging tools for designing with Altera's Excalibur embedded processor solutions."

About Altera's Excalibur Embedded Processor Solutions

Combining logic, memory, and a processor core, Altera's Excalibur embedded processor solutions allow engineers to integrate an entire system on a single programmable logic device. The Excalibur embedded processor solutions includes the Nios soft core embedded processor and the ARM-based embedded processor PLDs. The Nios soft core embedded processor features a configurable RISC soft processor with a 16-bit instruction set and user-selectable 16- or 32-bit data paths. The ARM-based Excalibur devices feature an embedded ARM922T^™ hard core processor, along with memory and peripherals, onto a programmable logic device. For more information visit http://www.altera.com/products/devices/excalibur/exc-index.html.

About Sophia Systems Co., Ltd.

Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. was established in 1975 and has been a leader in the embedded systems industry for more than 20 years. Today, Sophia Systems is Japan's leader in embedded systems development technology and strongly believes in innovation and new product development. Sophia works very closely with the strongest companies in the development industry and strives to continuously form new partnerships with technology leaders and innovators. Sophia Systems has consistently provided powerful and reliable real-time microprocessor emulation systems enabling thousands of hardware and software engineers to complete their development projects on time and within budget. Quality products have lead to long-term customer satisfaction among business, government, science, and education professionals. Sophia Systems stock is traded on the JASDAQ Stock Market: 6942. Sophia head office is located in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. Sophia Systems' Japan sales offices are located in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Internationally, Sophia has an office in San Jose, Calif. and distributors located around Europe, Asia and the Middle East. More information on Sophia is available on the Internet at http://www.sophia-systems.co.jp.

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 http://www.altera.com. ###
 

Editor Contacts: 

Ami Dorrell Altera Corporation (408) 544-6397 newsroom@altera.com

Khai Nguyen Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. (408) 467-9911 sales@sophia.com