Altera's High-Speed Transceiver Solution Integral Part Of Motorola MXP Platform

Mercury Devices--Industry's Only PLDs with 18 CDR Channels-Demonstrate the Power of the CompactPCI Serial Mesh Backplane (CSMB) Fabric

San Jose, Calif., April 23, 2002 -- Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) and Motorola Computer Group, a part of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced today that Altera^® Mercury^™ devices provide a critical high-speed link in Motorola's Multi-Service Packet Transport Platform (MXP). Motorola chose Altera Mercury devices for the MXP because it required a flexible, high-speed transceiver solution including clock-data recovery (CDR) to meet the high bandwidth requirements of the proposed CompactPCI Serial Mesh Backplane (CSMB) standard. The CSMB is a point-to-point serial interconnect that will enable the creation of high-speed packet environments in excess of 700 Gbps with the ability to connect multiple networks and support mixed-protocol applications such as 3G base stations, edge routers, and media gateways.

"Altera programmable logic devices (PLDs) meet our needs for this project in several fundamental ways," said Jeff Rhodes, business manager at Motorola computer group. "First, we use Altera Mercury devices to provide full connectivity of the mesh fabric, contributing significantly to the MXP's ability to handle the high-end applications at the edge of the network. Further, the ability to reconfigure Altera PLDs allows us to support evolving connection standards for network processing, switch fabrics, and inter-processor communications. By delivering both performance and flexibility, Altera has taken a significant step forward in the movement to reduce the cost of entry for CSMB-compliant products."

The MXP addresses the need for telecom OEMs to handle different types of traffic over different networks-including Internet protocol (IP), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and circuit-switched-particularly as the telecom world moves toward an all-packet transport. In order to support the potentially heavy processing requirements for this traffic, the MXP supports up to 18 slots for network processors or general-purpose processors, more than any other platform that meets the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group backplane communications standard (PICMG 2.20). Mercury devices offer built-in serializer/deserializer (SERDES) capabilities, and are the only PLDs available that offer up to 18 CDR channels, making them an ideal solution for the MXP or any platform based on the CSMB.

"By including built-in transceiver capabilities such as CDR and SERDES in our products over a year ago, we sought to bring the advantages of PLDs to the high-bandwidth products that would underpin the next-generation communications infrastructure," said Grant Smith, product marketing manager at Altera. "Motorola's use of Mercury devices in the MXP to achieve the highest data throughput while satisfying the requirements of PICMG 2.20 demonstrates that we have achieved that goal."

Smith continued, "We will continue to provide Motorola and other technology leaders with best-in-class transceiver capabilities, proving that Altera will remain the leader in delivering unparalleled flexibility and time-to-market advantages for industry-leading, bandwidth-intensive applications."
About Mercury Devices
Mercury devices provide up to 18 channels of 1.25-Gbps CDR transceiver support for a maximum CDR bandwidth of 45 Gbps, up to 14,400 logic elements, and up to 114,000 RAM bits, in compact FineLine BGA^™ packages. Their CDR transceivers enable support for high-speed serial backplane applications or for high data rate communication standards such as Gigabit Ethernet. For source-synchronous differential signaling, Mercury devices offer two solutions: the True-LVDS^™ solution for high-speed channels and dedicated serializer/deserializers, and the Flexible-LVDS^™ solution for a fully scalable, 100-channel flexible solution. In addition, Mercury devices provide the ability to interface to advanced memories such as double data rate (DDR) SDRAMs, zero bus turnaround (ZBT) SRAMs, and quad data rate (QDR) SRAMs. Mercury devices also feature a flexible quad-port RAM mode in the enhanced embedded system blocks (ESBs) to enable complex memory-intensive functions. For more information about Mercury devices, visit http://www.altera.com/products/devices/mercury/mcy-index.html.
About Altera
Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) is the world's pioneer of 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.
About Motorola
Motorola Computer Group is a business unit of the Motorola Integrated Electronic Systems Sector (IESS). It is the world's leading supplier of embedded computing platforms for equipment manufacturers in telecommunications, network storage, imaging, medical equipment and semiconductor production and test equipment industries, with core competencies in services and training, design, manufacturing and systems integration capabilities. IESS is a leading provider of advanced electronic products and systems for customers integrating electronics into their products. Motorola IESS solutions provide the brains that make electronic systems simpler, safer, smarter and more synchronized. More information is available at http://www.motorola.com/computer.

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2001 were $30 billion. More information is available at http://www.motorola.com.

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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. Motorola and the stylized M logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective holders.

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Editor Contacts: 

Martin S. Won Altera Corporation (408) 544-6397 newsroom@altera.com

Cathy Planchard Motorola Computer Group (602) 438-5797 cathy.planchard@motorola.com