Altera

The company was founded in 1983 by semiconductor veterans Robert Hartmann, Paul Newhagen, James Sansbury, and Michael Magranet with $1,300,000 in seed money. The name of the company was a play on "alterable", the type of chips the company created. The founders selected Rodney Smith to be the company's first CEO.{{Cite web |date=2024-02-12 |title=Altera: The Once and Future FPGA Supplier, Part 2 |url=https://www.eejournal.com/article/altera-the-once-and-future-fpga-supplier-part-2/ |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=EEJournal |language=en-US}} In 1988, Altera became a public company via an initial public offering (IPO).{{Cite journal |date=June 2003 |title=The Road to Innovation Drive |url=http://ebook.pldworld.com/_semiconductors/altera/literature/_nv/03nvq2.pdf |journal=Altera News & Views |volume=2003 |issue=Q2 |pages=5–10}}

File:Mainboard-fb4ceiling (14309408349) Cyclone III (cropped).jpg

File:Embedded World 2016, Altera Cyclone-V SE (02).jpg

File:Altera MAX II die shot - etched - stitched (33460784978).jpg of an Altera Max II FPGA]]

The main product lines from Altera are the Agilex FPGA product lines, and their predecessors: the high-end Stratix series, mid-range Arria series,{{cite web | url=https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/hb/arria-10/arria_10_aib.pdf | title=Arria 10 Device Overview | publisher=Intel | date=September 4, 2013}} and lower-cost Cyclone series; as well as the MAX series non-volatile FPGAs.

Altera and its partners offer an array of semiconductor intellectual property cores that serve as building blocks that design engineers can drop into their system designs to perform specific functions. IP cores eliminate some of the time-consuming tasks of creating every block in a design from scratch. In 2000, Altera acquired Designpro and Northwest Logic, providers of IP cores, in order to expand its design capabilities and move towards delivery of complete system-on-chip solutions.{{Cite news |date=September 12, 2000 |title=Altera Buys System Design Firm |url=https://www.eetimes.com/altera-buys-system-design-firm/ |work=EE Times}}{{cite news |date=May 2, 2000 |title=Altera Acquires Designpro |url=https://www.eetimes.com/altera-acquires-designpro/ |work=EE Times}}

Beginning in December 2012, the company announced the shipment of its first system on a chip FPGA devices using a fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) 28 nm chip manufacturing process. These are the Cyclone V SoC devices, which have a dual-core ARM architecture Cortex-A9 processor system with FPGA logic on a single chip.{{cite news |first=Toni |last=McConnel |work=Embedded |url=https://www.embedded.com/altera-ships-its-first-cyclone-v-soc-devices/ |title=Altera ships its first Cyclone V SoC devices |date=December 12, 2012}} These devices integrated FPGAs with full hard processor systems based around ARM architecture onto a single device.{{cite news | first=Clive |last=Maxfield |url=https://www.eetimes.com/alteras-shipping-its-first-soc-fpgas/ |title=Altera's shipping its first SoC FPGAs |work=EE Times |date= December 12, 2012}}{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Clarke |url=https://www.eetimes.com/altera-eyes-fdsoi-process-for-fpgas/ |title=Altera eyes FDSOI process for FPGAs |work=EE Times |date=December 15, 2012}} As of 2024, the majority of Altera's FPGA devices are available as an SoC variant with an ARM hard processor system integrated with the FPGA as a single system on a chip.

These SoCs are targeted for use in wireless communications, industrial, video surveillance, automotive and medical equipment markets. With these SoCs devices, users were able to create custom field-programmable SoC variants for power, board space, performance and cost optimization.{{cite press release |url=https://www.arm.com/company/news/2012/12/altera-and-arm-announce-industrys-first-fpga-adaptive-embedded-software-toolkit |title=Altera and ARM Announce Industry's First FPGA-Adaptive Embedded Software Toolkit |publisher=Arm Holdings |date=December 12, 2012}}

Cyclone V SoC, Arria V SoC and Arria 10 SoC product families are system on a chip FPGAs based upon a hard ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor system.

Stratix 10 SoC and Agilex 7 SoC product families are system on a chip FPGAs based upon a hard ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor system.

The Agilex 5 SoC product family are system on a chip FPGAs based upon a hard ARM Cortex-A76/A55 quad-core processor system.

Altera offers the Nios V embedded soft processor cores based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture. Previously Altera had offered their own proprietary Nios II embedded soft processor, the Freescale ColdFire v1 core, and the ARM Cortex-M1 processor.

{{main|Quartus Prime}}

All of Altera's devices are supported by a common design environment, the Quartus Prime design software, which is a multi-platform development environment that includes various tools needed to design FPGAs, SoC FPGAs, and CPLDs.{{cite news | first=Clive | last=Maxfield | url=https://www.eetimes.com/alteras-quartus-ii-design-software-features-qsys-system-integration-tool/ | title=Altera's Quartus Prime design software features Qsys System Integration Tool | work=EETimes | date=May 9, 2011}}{{cite news | first=Clive | last=Maxfield | url=https://www.eetimes.com/latest-and-greatest-quartus-ii-design-software-from-altera/ | title=Latest and greatest Quartus II design software from Altera | work=EETimes | date=November 7, 2011}}

In May 2013, Altera made available SDK for OpenCL, enabling software programmers to access the high-performance capabilities of programmable logic devices.{{Cite news |url=https://www.eetimes.com/altera-opens-the-fpga-world-to-software-programmers/ |title=Altera opens the FPGA world to software programmers |first=Clive |last=Maxfield |work=EE Times |date=May 6, 2013}}

Altera also support high-level synthesis using SYCL extensions to ANSI C/C++.

In 1984, the company formed a partnership with Intel, licensing its programmable logic technology to Intel.{{Cite web |title=Intel PLD business |url=https://semiengineering.com/entities/intel-pld-business/ |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=Semiconductor Engineering |language=en-US}} In 1994, Altera acquired the PLD business of Intel for $50 million.{{cite web |title=MERCHANT IC VENDORS |url=http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/ice/cd/ASIC97/SECTION3.PDF |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}

In February 2013, Altera announced an agreement to use Intel's foundry services to produce its 14-nm node for the future manufacturing of its FPGAs, based on Intel's 14-nm tri-gate transistor technology, in place of Altera's ongoing agreement with TSMC.{{cite press release |url=https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/altera-to-build-next-generation-high-performance-fpgas-on-intels-14-nm-tri-gate-technology/ |title=Altera to Build Next-Generation, High-Performance FPGAs on Intel's 14 nm Tri-Gate Technology |publisher=Intel |date=February 25, 2013}} The Stratix 10 product family was the first such product line.{{cite news |last=Hruska |first=Joel |date=October 10, 2016 |title=Intel launches Stratix 10: Altera FPGA combined with ARM CPU, 14 nm manufacturing |url=https://www.extremetech.com/computing/237338-intel-launches-stratix-10-altera-fpga-combined-with-arm-cpu-14nm-manufacturing |work=ExtremeTech.}}

In December 2015, Intel acquired Altera for $16.7 billion in cash.{{cite news |last=vemeko |first=FPGA |date=August 18, 2024 |title=Introduction to Altera FPGA |url=https://www.vemeko.com/blog/altera-fpga-leading-innovation-in-programmable-logic-devices.html |url-access=subscription |work=vemeko FPGA}}{{Cite news |last=Burt |first=Jeffrey |date=December 28, 2015 |title=Intel Completes $16.7 Billion Altera Deal |url=http://www.eweek.com/servers/intel-completes-16.7-billion-altera-deal.html |work=eWeek}} Altera became Intel's newly formed business unit called the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG).{{Cite web |last=Darrow |first=Barb |date=December 28, 2015 |title=Altera Gives Intel a Hot Hand in Programmable Chips |url=https://fortune.com/2015/12/28/intel-completes-altera-acquisition/ |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=Fortune |language=en}}

In October 2023, Intel announced that at the start of 2024 it would begin a process of spinning off PSG into a separate company, while maintaining majority ownership and intending to seek an IPO within three years.{{Cite news |last=King |first=Ian |date=October 3, 2023 |title=Intel to Make Former Altera Into Standalone Business, Seek IPO |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-03/intel-to-make-former-altera-into-standalone-business-seek-ipo |publisher=Bloomberg News}}{{Cite web |last=Leswing |first=Kif |date=October 3, 2023 |title=Intel plans to IPO programmable chip unit within three years; stock rises after hours |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/03/intel-plans-to-ipo-programmable-chip-unit-within-three-years.html |publisher=CNBC}} In February 2024, Intel announced that the newly independent company would reestablish the Altera name and branding,{{Cite web |date=29 February 2024 |title=Intel Launches Altera, Its New Standalone FPGA Company |url=https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/intel-launches-altera-standalone-fpga-operation.html |access-date=2024-02-29 |website=Intel |language=en}} and on January 1, 2025, Altera officially became an independent subsidiary of Intel.{{Cite web |last=Comment |first=Charlotte Trueman |date=2025-01-10 |title=FPGA company Altera announces independence from Intel |url=https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/fpga-company-altera-announces-independence-from-intel/ |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=www.datacenterdynamics.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Inside Edge: A New Era for FPGA Innovation Begins |url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/inside-edge-new-era-fpga-innovation-begins-altera-fpga-oyhfc/ |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=www.linkedin.com |language=en}}

On April 14, 2025, Intel announced that they agreed to sell a 51% controlling stake to Silver Lake, a private equity firm.{{Cite web |last=Bairey |first=Steph |date=2025-04-14 |title=Intel Announces Strategic Investment by Silver Lake in Altera |url=https://newsroom.intel.com/corporate/intel-partner-deal-news-april2025 |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Newsroom |language=en-US}}{{cite web |url=https://newsroom.intel.com/corporate/intel-partner-deal-news-april2025 |title=Intel Announces Strategic Investment by Silver Lake in Altera |date=14 April 2025 |website=intel.com |access-date=14 April 2025}} With this sale, Intel also cancelled their plan to conduct an IPO for the Altera business, with now the majority stake being owned by Silver Lake. It was announced that Raghib Hussain will replace Sandra Rivera as the chief executive officer of Altera, with an effective date of May 5, 2025. {{Cite web |last=Cornell |first=Joe |title=Intel Cancels IPO Carveout Of Altera |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/joecornell/2025/04/16/intel-cancels-ipo-carveout-of-altera/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Forbes |language=en}}

On June 21, 2006, after an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company restated its financial results from 1996 to 2005 to correct accounting errors related to options backdating. The chief financial officer of the company resigned.{{Cite press release |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20060621005890/en/Altera-Announces-Expected-Restatement-Related-Stock-Based-Compensation |title=Altera Announces Expected Restatement Related to Stock-Based Compensation |publisher=Business Wire |date=June 21, 2006}}{{cite news |last=McGrath |first=Dylan |date=June 21, 2006 |title=Altera to restate 10 years of earnings |url=https://www.eetimes.com/altera-to-restate-10-years-of-earnings/ |work=EE Times}}{{cite news |last=Taub |first=Stephen |date=June 22, 2006 |title=Altera to Restate 10 Years of Financials |url=https://www.cfo.com/accounting-tax/2006/06/altera-to-restate-10-years-of-financials/ |work=CFO}} Altera filed a petition to overturn related regulations but was, under Intel, denied in 2020.{{Cite news |date=June 22, 2020 |title=US Supreme Court declines to hear Altera case |url=https://www.ey.com/en_gl/tax-alerts/us-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-altera-case |work=Ernst & Young}}

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Category:1983 establishments in California

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