Altera Breaks Transistor Mark

May 4, 2011
Known for their highly integrated field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Altera Corp. now sets a mark for the record books by fabricating the highest number of transistors for single integrated circuit (IC), with 3.9 billion transistors on the firm's ...

Known for their highly integrated field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Altera Corp. now sets a mark for the record books by fabricating the highest number of transistors for single integrated circuit (IC), with 3.9 billion transistors on the firm's new Stratix V FPGAs. Formed with the 28-nm 28HP semiconductor process from TSMC, these new FPGAs support new levels of performance. "Altera surpassed the known record for transistors when it taped out Stratix V FPGAs at the end of 2010," says Bradley Howe, the company's Vice-President of IC Engineering. "Maintaining the rapid pace set by Moore's Law has allowed programmable logic to remain at the forefront of driving innovations in semiconductor technology. Achieving milestones like this continue to propel FPGAs to new heights of capacity and performance while delivering significantly higher levels of integration."

About the Author

Jack Browne | Technical Contributor

Jack Browne, Technical Contributor, has worked in technical publishing for over 30 years. He managed the content and production of three technical journals while at the American Institute of Physics, including Medical Physics and the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology. He has been a Publisher and Editor for Penton Media, started the firm’s Wireless Symposium & Exhibition trade show in 1993, and currently serves as Technical Contributor for that company's Microwaves & RF magazine. Browne, who holds a BS in Mathematics from City College of New York and BA degrees in English and Philosophy from Fordham University, is a member of the IEEE.

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