page_title: Altera
hierarchical_section_title: Altera
caption_attribution_description: Altera head-quarters (San Jose)
context_page_description: Altera Corporation was a manufacturer of programmable logic devices headquartered in San Jose, California. On December 28, 2015, the company was acquired by Intel.
  The main product lines from Altera were the Stratix, mid-range Arria, and lower-cost Cyclone series system on a chip FPGAs, the MAX series complex programmable logic device and non-volatile FPGAs, Intel Quartus Prime design software, and Enpirion PowerSoC DC-DC power solutions.
  The company was founded in 1983 by semiconductor veterans Rodney Smith, Robert Hartmann, James Sansbury, and Paul Newhagen with $500,000 in seed money. The name of the company was a play on "alterable", the type of chips the company created. In 1984, the company formed a long-running design partnership with Intel. In 1988, the company became a public company via an initial public offering. In 1994, Altera acquired the PLD business of Intel for $50 million.
  By the 1990s, the company was the primary competitor of Xilinx.
context_section_description: Altera Corporation was a manufacturer of programmable logic devices (PLDs) headquartered in San Jose, California. On December 28, 2015, the company was acquired by Intel.
  The main product lines from Altera were the Stratix, mid-range Arria, and lower-cost Cyclone series system on a chip FPGAs, the MAX series complex programmable logic device and non-volatile FPGAs, Intel Quartus Prime design software, and Enpirion PowerSoC DC-DC power solutions.
  The company was founded in 1983 by semiconductor veterans Rodney Smith, Robert Hartmann, James Sansbury, and Paul Newhagen with $500,000 in seed money. The name of the company was a play on "alterable", the type of chips the company created. In 1984, the company formed a long-running design partnership with Intel. In 1988, the company became a public company via an initial public offering. In 1994, Altera acquired the PLD business of Intel for $50 million.
  By the 1990s, the company was the primary competitor of Xilinx.
caption: Altera headquarters in San Jose, California.
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