Brand Introduction: Manufacturer Altera Corporation (Intel)

Altera Corporation is a global semiconductor company that specializes in designing, manufacturing, and marketing programmable logic devices (PLDs). The company also provides logical devices and development tools that are associated with programmable logical devices. Altera is fully focused on accelerating the rate at which innovators build various electronic solutions. The most effective way of achieving this is by providing leadership in the field of programmable logic devices and solutions. Their devices are easy to use and deploy in various application areas.

Although Altera is owned by Intel, it operates as an independent company. This arrangement ensures that it gets the best from all sides. It utilizes the massive resources provided by Intel while at the same time, the independence ensures that it gets the maximum flexibility to deliver quality products and services.

Altera Corporation provides quality and innovative solutions for the diverse application areas. Among its product lines are customized programmable logic devices that are designed to be used in specific application areas. These solutions are embedded with customized features and elements that make them suitable for even the most complex applications.

Like most semiconductor components, programmable logic devices are of big importance in the modern world of electronics. They are embedded in electric circuits to perform various roles. The fact that they are programmed means that they can perfectly provide solutions for specific application areas. It is for such reasons that Altera Corporation is highly motivated to produce these devices for the modern electronic applications.

History of Altera

Altera Corporation has been in the semiconductor industry for many years whereby it has been specializing in making programmable logic devices. The company was founded in 1983 by engineers who were passionate about semiconductor products and components. By 1988, Altera had become a public company.

After operating for many years, Altera was finally acquired by Intel in 2015. It became a business unit of Intel and operated as Programmable Solutions Group (PSG). Towards the end of 2023, Intel announced the plans to make PSG a separate company, and this was implemented in 2024. In February 2024, Intel reestablished the brand name Altera and it continued operating as an independent unit.

Intel launches Altera, a standalone FPGA company

So, what is the relationship between Intel and Altera? Well, in February of 2024, Intel announced the official launch of Altera as their new standalone FPGA company. Intel announced that this was part of its strategy to secure a leadership position in the $55 billion market opportunity. The move was also aimed at expanding Intel’s portfolio, especially in the field of FPGA. In this announcement, Altera would become Intel’s branch.

Why was it important for Intel to create Altera? Well, it is clear that the FPGA market is growing at a steady rate and Intel would not let this opportunity go by. FPGAs are used in applications such as cloud computing, networking data centers, and edge computing, among others. Additionally, the growing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) has created new opportunities for the building and exploration of FPGA components. They are perfectly suited for running complex intelligence applications.

The best way of addressing this was by creating an independent company that would focus on this market segment. Altera provides a wide range of solutions that are designed to address these market needs. Most products from the company are specifically programmed to provide solutions to specific application needs.

Altera products

Right after the announcement by Intel, Altera launched a new line of FPGA products that are designed to solve different customer needs. These products include:

· Agilex 9: This line of products offers faster data converters that are used in different industries such as military and aerospace. The converters are usually embedded in radar systems whereby they read translate and convert different types of data.

· Agilex 7 F-series: These FPGAs are quite powerful and deliver two times the performance of most programmable logic devices in the market. They are perfect for applications with high bandwidth such as data centers and networking.

· Agulex 5: This class of FPGA is designed for modern or emerging applications such as AI and cloud computing.  The products are also used in embedded applications and as well as edge applications.

· System-on-chips FPGAs: Altera released its first system-on-chip FPGAs in 2012. This semiconductor chip was carefully designed and crafted using a high-level chip manufacturing process and uses the ARM architecture.

· Soft processor cores: Altera manufactures embedded soft processor cores that are mainly used in embedded applications. They have fast processing speed and large bandwidth.

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To ensure that it keeps up with the fast pace of evolving technology, Altera has always been releasing new products in the market while at the same time updating the existing products in its catalog. This explains why its products are relevant even in emerging application areas.

Customization is one of the key solutions that Altera provides. The company customizes some of its FPGA solutions to ensure that they meet specific customer needs. The fact that it produces programmable logic devices means that customization mainly involves modifying the preprogram that is embedded in a chip to ensure that it performs the way a user wants.

Altera design software

All the programmable logic devices and other associated products made by Altera are supported by a common design environment known as Quietus Prime design software. This is a multi-platform design and development environment that encompasses an array of tools needed for designing PLDs, FPGAs, and SOCs.

The company availed this design tool SDK for OpenCL, meaning that designers and programmers can access it and use it for programming their logic devices. The good news is Altera provides adequate support for the use of this design tool.

Meeting the needs of the global market

Altera is focused on meeting the needs of its global market. It does so by supplying and delivering quality components globally. It already has an existing market thanks to the high demand for FPGA products. The years of experience in the industry and also close association with Intel give the company an extra edge when it comes to developing quality solutions.

When it comes to the distribution aspect, Altera has partnered with global distributors such as ICRFQ. They distribute products and components on behalf of the brand. So, you can contact ICRFQ in case you are looking for programmable logic devices from Altera.