Altera Announces New Family of IP Cores Designed for PMC-Sierra's POS-PHY Solutions.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2000

Altera Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR) today announced the first in a family of Intellectual Property (IP) cores that are compatible with PMC-Sierra's (Nasdaq:PMCS) line of POS-PHY Level 3 products. The first core in the family is currently shipping to selected top-tier network infrastructure customers, and will accelerate product development cycles for the new generation of super routers and layer 3 switches that are required for next-generation, multi-service voice and data networks. Altera will continue to work closely with PMC-Sierra to ensure that future core offerings have device compatibility with POS-PHY Level 3 and beyond. In addition, Altera is participating in the definition of the POS-PHY Level 4 standard -- a next-generation interface that will support cell- and packet-based point-to-point connections at ultra-high-speed OC-192 (10 Gbits/s) line rates.

The rapid migration toward data-intensive, mixed traffic streams requires replacing voice-centric networking systems with solutions that can support multiple traffic types (voice, video, data) at various rates. Equipment developers and their silicon vendors are racing to satisfy that demand by building switches, routers, and port cards that can process multi-service traffic of all types, and aggregate bandwidths from the lower DS-0 rates to OC-48 rates and above. In response, PMC-Sierra worked with the SATURN(R) Development Group, an industry consortium of the leading networking companies, to define a new Packet-over-SONET (POS) physical interface specification for the new generation of network equipment required for multi-service voice and data networks. The result was the POS-PHY interface, a new standard for the exchange of mixed cell and packet traffic between physical layer (PHY) and link layer devices. POS-PHY Level 3 has now been endorsed by the ATM Forum (af-phy-143.000) and is pending at the Optical Internetworking Forum (oif2000.008.2).

"Working in close collaboration with PMC-Sierra, we have developed a family of IP cores optimized for the POS-PHY Level 3 standard," said Justin Cowling, Altera senior IP marketing manager. "Customers can feel confident that their Altera programmable logic design will interface seamlessly with PMC-Sierra devices."

"Altera's IP core which supports the POS-PHY Level 3 interface will enable the rapid development of next-generation packet-based networking equipment," said Bill Richardson, director of business partnerships at PMC-Sierra. "The flexibility provided by the combination of Altera's POS-PHY cores and PMC-Sierra's family of POS-PHY devices allows designers to add key differentiation without sacrificing schedule -- the end goal is reduced time-to-market for our mutual customers."

Altera Delivers Full-Featured POS-PHY Level 3 Cores

Altera's POS-PHY Level 3 MegaCore(R) functions are designed for use in link layer or physical layer devices that transfer data to and from POS devices using the standard POS-PHY interface. The MegaCore functions are comprised of separately configurable modules, which may be easily combined via Altera's MegaWizard(R) Plug-In tool to generate a highly parameterized module that allow POS-PHY compliant interfaces to be included in custom designs.

The MegaCore function supports POS-PHY Level 3 operating at greater than OC-48 line speeds (2.5 Gbps), enabling efficient translation between the different formats, including mapping between different bus speeds, and bus widths, as well as customizable FIFO parameters.

Address polling functions and address mapping functions are MegaWizard options, allowing both single PHY and multi PHY applications to be handled. A single 32-bit PHY Link layer core (receiver and transmitter combined) with a 128 word internal FIFO consumes approximately 600 LEs, which is only 14 percent of an APEX(TM) 20K100E device, and runs at speeds over the 104 MHz required by the standard. At 14 percent of an APEX 20K100E, this functionality costs only $2.80 based on volume pricing.

Altera's APEX Devices demonstrate POS-PHY Level 4 Capability

Altera's APEX 20KE devices offer unique features in programmable logic, including multiple low-voltage differential signaling (True-LVDS(TM) solution) channels operable at industry-leading 840 Mbps. This is necessary to meet the I/O requirements of POS-PHY Level 4.

"The POS-PHY L4 interface will push networking equipment through the OC-192 barrier," added PMC-Sierra's Bill Richardson. "The fact that Altera can demonstrate POS-PHY Level 4-capable performance with their current devices is a major achievement."

Availability and Pricing

The POS-PHY Level 3 function consists of two separate MegaCore products -- the PHY layer (ordering code: PLSM-POSPHY/P3) and the Link layer (PLSM-POSPHY/L3). The Link layer core and the PHY layer core will be fully released by Q4. Both these cores are priced at $12,995 each.

About PMC-Sierra

PMC-Sierra's extensive family of broadband communication semiconductors is enabling the equipment that makes up the backbone of the Internet. The company develops Internet Protocol (IP), ATM, SONET/SDH, T1/E1/T3/E3, Voice-over-Packet and wireless infrastructure solutions for wide area network and Internet infrastructure equipment. PMC-Sierra's quality system is registered with the Quality Management Institute to the ISO 9001 standard. As co-founder of the SATURN(R) Development Group, PMC-Sierra works with over 30 other member companies to define and develop interoperable, standard-compliant solutions for high-speed networking applications.

PMC-Sierra offers worldwide technical and sales support including a network of offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. PMC-Sierra is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol "PMCS." The company is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) which contains the largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The Nasdaq-100 Index is the benchmark for the Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock (Amex:QQQ). For more information about PMC-Sierra, visit http://www.pmc-sierra.com.

About Altera

Altera Corporation, The Programmable Solutions Company(R), 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.

Note to Editors: Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, MegaCore, MegaWizard, APEX, True-LVDS, and specific device designations are trademarks and/or service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.