Altera

Altera Corporation was an American semiconductor company that specialized in programmable logic devices, most notably field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). It also offered related products such as system-on-a-chip solutions and design software, serving markets including telecommunications, data centers, automotive, industrial, and consumer electronics. The primary design environment was Quartus Prime, used for FPGA synthesis, placement and routing, timing analysis, and programming.

Founded in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, Altera grew to become a leading supplier of configurable logic devices and competed with Xilinx in the FPGA market. The company was known for high-density, high-performance FPGAs and for integrating embedded features and DSP blocks within its devices.

In 2015, Intel announced an agreement to acquire Altera for about $16.7 billion in cash; the acquisition closed later that year. After the deal, Altera’s product lines were integrated into Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group and marketed under the Intel FPGA brand. The Altera name persisted for a time on existing families such as Cyclone, Arria, and Stratix, while newer offerings were introduced under Intel branding, including Agilex.

Altera’s technologies and ecosystem—devices, intellectual property, and design tools—contributed to the wider adoption of programmable logic in networking, data centers, and embedded systems, and its legacy continues within Intel’s FPGA portfolio.