Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) and White Electronic Designs Corporation (NASDAQ: WEDC) today announced a partnership that will enable military and aerospace customers access to a broad variety of packaging options for FPGAs that meet the rigorous requirements of defense applications. This is the first cooperative packaging agreement of its kind in the programmable logic industry.

White Electronic Designs Corporation will package Altera FPGA die in packaging types that will include small form-factor monolithic plastic and ceramic, chip-on-board, multichip modules, stack and system-in-a-package (SiP). The packaging options will support Altera's 90-nm Stratix II and CycloneII FPGA families. Support for Altera's next-generation, 65-nm FPGAs is also planned. WEDC's secure facilities and technologies for defense-related programs will ensure the security of customers' designs when they send their die for packaging.

"This relationship further demonstrates Altera's commitment to defense electronics OEMs," said Hamid Shokrgozar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at White Electronic Designs Corporation. "It brings FPGA capabilities to military systems designers in smaller form-factor packaging for applications requiring greater density and design flexibility than standard packaging allows."

Altera Enhanced COTS Strategy

The relationship with WEDC is an important component of Altera's commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) strategy. Altera goes beyond normal COTS requirements when addressing the unique needs of the military and aerospace market. This approach to the military/aerospace market includes providing devices that support a wide range of temperature gradients, bare die business support, long-term obsolescence protection and a consistent supply chain.

"Altera's relationship with White Electronic Designs expands our range of packaging options well beyond the competition's and is a further demonstration of our enhanced COTS initiative," said Don Faria, senior vice president of Altera's business groups. "Offering small form-factor monolithic packaging more effectively aligns us with the needs of our military and aerospace customers."