Altera negotiates with Motorola for PowerPC cores in PLDs

Altera negotiates with Motorola for PowerPC cores in PLDs
SAN JOSE -- Motorola Inc. today disclosed it is negotiating a licensing agreement with Altera Corp. to allow its RISC processor core technology to be embedded in programmable logic devices from Altera.

Altera is interested in obtaining the rights to 32-bit versions of Motorola's PowerPC and derivatives of the processor core for use in "system-on-a-programmable-chip" (SoPC) solutions. If an agreement is struck, the processor technology could become part of Altera's new Excalibur embedded processor program, which was announced today as part of the company's roadmap for SoPC designs (see today's story).

"A partnership with Motorola can further expand our Excalibur embedded processor solutions and be an important part of our system-on-a-programmable-chip roadmap," said Erik Cleage, senior vice president of marketing at Altera in San Jose.

The two companies said they share a common vision: large-scale system design in telecommunications and networking is rapidly evolving from traditional fixed-ASICs to more flexible, programmable solutions. In addition to being potential technology partners, Altera and Motorola said they have a well-established business relationship, with Motorola being one of Altera's major customers for programmable logic devices.

"The combination of Motorola's advanced processor technology with Altera's leading-edge programmable architectures is a strong move toward enabling powerful smart networks solutions for the communications marketplace," said Daniel Artusi, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Networking and Computing Systems Group, based in Austin, Tex.