Chipmaker
Intel Corporation (Intel) has completed its acquisition of FPGA CPLD and ASIC solutions provider Altera Corporation (Altera). Intel, which has headquarters in Santa Clara, California, United States, is recognized as one of the world’s most important and most profitable semiconductor chip producers. The Altera deal went ahead after scrutiny from the European Commission and it is reported to have cost the company $16.7 billion.
Altera, which has headquarters in San Jose, California, United States, also makes chips and was previously Intel’s competitor. The deal represents Intel’s costliest acquisition to date and gives the company access to Altera’s Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). While major players like Google and Microsoft utilize Intel's Xeon processors, they also utilize Altera’s reprogrammable FPGAs. Intel suggested that ultimately both technologies will be merged into a single, “next generation” chip, but until then they will be sold alongside each other. Once combined the new chip will offer considerably faster speeds and offer the processing power needed to resource hungry internet features like facial recognition.
“Altera is now part of Intel, and together we will make the next generation of semiconductors not only better but able to do more,” explained the CEO of Intel, Brian Krzanich in a press release. “We will apply Moore’s Law to grow today’s FPGA business, and we’ll invent new products that make amazing experiences of the future possible – experiences like autonomous driving and machine learning.”
“As part of Intel, we will create market-leading programmable logic devices that deliver a wider range of capabilities than customers experience today,” suggested Intel’s Dan McNamara, the company’s Corporate Vice President and General Manager of its Programmable Solutions Group. “Combining Altera’s industry-leading FPGA technology and customer support with Intel’s world-class semiconductor manufacturing capabilities will enable customers to create the next generation of electronic systems with unmatched performance and power efficiency.”
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