Altera Unveils New FPGA Solutions

Altera, a company owned by Intel, has introduced a range of FPGA hardware, software, and development tools that aim to make its programmable solutions more accessible across various use cases and markets. At its annual developer's conference, Altera shared details about its upcoming Agilex 3 FPGAs, which are optimized for power and cost, and also announced new development kits and software support for Agilex 5 FPGAs.

CEO of Altera, Sandra Rivera, emphasized the company's commitment to providing FPGA-based solutions that empower innovators with cutting-edge programmable technologies. Altera's FPGA portfolio is designed to cater to a wide range of industries including data centers, aerospace, defense, communications, automotive, industrial, medical, and embedded markets.

Altera's Agilex FPGAs are equipped with AI capabilities and are optimized for AI inference workloads. The company's FPGA AI Suite accelerates FPGA development for AI inference using popular frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and OpenVINO toolkit.

The Agilex 3 FPGAs are designed to meet the requirements of embedded and intelligent edge applications, offering higher levels of integration, enhanced security, and improved performance compared to the previous generation. These FPGAs feature an on-chip dual Cortex A55 ARM hard processor subsystem with AI capabilities, making them suitable for applications like autonomous vehicles and industrial IoT.

Altera has enhanced the security features of Agilex 3 FPGAs to include bitstream encryption, authentication, and anti-tamper detection, ensuring reliable performance for critical applications. The FPGAs leverage Altera's HyperFlex architecture to provide a significant performance improvement over the previous generation.

Software support for Agilex 3 FPGAs is expected to begin in Q1 2025, with development kits and production shipments starting in mid-2025. Altera also announced new features in its Quartus Prime Pro software, which aims to improve designer productivity and time-to-market for developers.

Customers can start designing with Agilex 5 FPGA D-series using the Quartus Prime Pro software, which offers improved support for embedded applications. Altera also provides software support for Agilex 5 FPGA E-series through a no-cost license in the Quartus Prime Software.

Altera and its ecosystem partners have introduced 11 new Agilex 5 FPGA-based development kits and system-on-modules to help developers get started with FPGA development. These kits offer easy access to Altera hardware and provide a faster path to full-volume production.

For more information on purchasing Altera's development kits, visit the Partner Showcase site.