For Release: September 07,
2004
Altera and Modelware to Launch Advanced
Switching Solution at Intel Developer Forum
Intel Developer Forum, San
Francisco, Calif., September 7, 2004 ─Altera Corporation
(NASDAQ: ALTR) and Modelware, Inc., a member of the Altera® Megafunction
Partners Program (AMPPSM), today launched an Advanced Switching (ASI)
solution at the Intel Developer Forum. Designers integrating the
Modelware ASI intellectual property (IP) core into Altera’s Stratix® GX
FPGA family will be able to interface network processors, traffic
managers, and other devices to ASI endpoints and switches. The
solution leverages the flexibility of programmable logic to make it
easier for designers to bridge between existing protocols with ASI.
Advanced Switching is a standards-based switching technology based
on the PCI Express architecture, designed for connecting system
boards and components in future generations of communications,
storage, and embedded products.
“The Advanced Switching core is a key
element of our communications IP portfolio that provides Altera
customers with an extensive set of interface, protocol, and bridging
solution cores,” said Anthony Dalleggio, Modelware’s vice president
of marketing. “The combination of our ASI core and Altera’s Stratix
GX devices will deliver to customers a complete and proven ASI
solution.”
The Modelware ASI core includes the physical
layer, data link layer, and transaction layer functionality,
enabling the development of complete end-point and switch solutions.
The core is designed for high performance and can be configured to
support up to eight 2.5-Gbps lanes, providing 20 Gbps of aggregate
bandwidth. The core utilizes the Stratix GX device’s 3.125-Gbps
transceiver technology that integrates serializer/deserializer (SERDES),
clock data recovery, 8B/10B encoding, and Tx/Rx first-in first-out
(FIFO) buffers.
“Modelware’s extensive experience in the
communications industry makes them a natural partner for developing
a product based on ASI,” said Jack Ogawa, senior director of
solutions marketing at Altera. “Providing complete flexible ASI
development solutions is a crucial part of Altera’s strategy to
accelerate the design and development of high-speed serial I/O
communications systems.” Altera is an associate member in the Intel®
Communications Alliance, and of the Advanced Switching Interconnect
Special Interest Group (ASI SIG), an organization chartered with
providing a switched fabric interconnect standard.
“Advanced Switching brings the cost and
performance advantages of PCI Express technology to the rapidly
growing serial backplane market segment,” said Rajeev Kumar,
president of the ASI SIG and switch fabric initiatives manager at
Intel. “FPGAs and intellectual property blocks are key products that
will help foster quick adoption of any new technology, and the
product announcement by Modelware and Altera is one example of the
momentum behind Advanced Switching throughout the industry.”
A preliminary version of the ASI solution is
being demonstrated for the first time at the Intel Developer Forum
in San Francisco, Calif., today until September 9 at booth No.1120.
The demonstration platform is a fabric interface mezzanine card
developed by Altera that allows two 2.5-Gbps Intel IXP2400 network
processors to communicate over an Advanced Telecom Computing
Architecture (ATCA) backplane using ASI.
About the Stratix GX Device Family
The Stratix GX family, Altera’s
second-generation embedded transceiver family, is based on a
0.13-micron process technology with 1.5-V core voltage. Stratix GX
devices have up to 20 embedded 3.125-Gbps transceivers and up to 45
differential I/O pins with dedicated dynamic phase alignment (DPA)
capability supporting up to 1-Gbps source-synchronous data
transfers. For more information about the Stratix GX device family,
visit
www.altera.com/stratixgx/.
About the ASI SIG
The Advanced Switching Interconnect SIG (ASI
SIG) is a non-profit collaborative trade organization tasked with
developing and supporting a switched interconnect and data fabric
interface specification for communications, storage and embedded
equipment, termed Advanced Switching Interconnect, based on the PCI
Express architecture. The ASI SIG’s board of directors and members,
comprised of industry-leading equipment manufacturers and
semiconductor and tools vendors, has surpassed 50 members to date.
In addition to ongoing technical development of the specification,
these member companies help to define, develop, and market ASI.
Different membership levels provide differing levels of influence,
involvement, and responsibility. The overall tasks performed by the
members of the SIG include establishing broad industry awareness,
ongoing technical development and enabling rapid industry adoption
through training programs, ecosystem development and
interoperability and compliance testing. The board of directors
includes Agere, Alcatel, Huawei, Intel, Siemens, Vitesse and Xilinx.
More information can be found at www.asi-sig.org.
About Altera
Altera Corporation is the world’s pioneer in
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 www.altera.com.
About Modelware, Inc.
Modelware is a leading provider of
semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) cores for telecom and
networking ASIC and FPGA applications. Its highly scalable products
provide semiconductor and system OEM customers a compelling value
and enable them to bring standards-compliant products to market
faster. Modelware also offers standard-bridging products that
provide interoperability solutions between different interface
standards. By offering design services that complement its standard
product offering, Modelware provides customized solutions that
exactly match the customer’s application. Modelware’s products and
services are backed with an exceptional level of support that is
available to customers throughout their product design cycle. For
more information, visit www.modelware.com.
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