Dylan McGrath, EETimes
10/24/2012 10:43 AM EDT
GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—Chinese telecom and networking equipment vendor Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is using ASICs in some of its gear for the first time, displacing FPGAs supplied by Altera Corp. The development is expected to cut Altera's sales and could deal a blow to the disputed notion that FPGAs are steadily capturing sockets traditionally held by ASICs.
John Daane, Altera's president, chairman and CEO, said following Altera's third quarter earnings report Tuesday (Oct. 23) that two customers have in recent months converted three high-volume designs to ASICs. Daane did not identify the customers, but said one of the two was Altera's largest customer, believed to be Huawei.