SAN JOSE, Calif., April 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced first quarter sales of $535.8 million, down 4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 and up 33 percent from the first quarter of 2010. New product sales increased 13 percent sequentially. First quarter net income was $224.1 million, $0.68 per diluted share, compared with net income of $231.6 million, $0.72 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $153.2 million, $0.50 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2010.

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First quarter cash flow from operating activities was $297.0 million. Altera ended the quarter with $3.1 billion in cash and short-term investments.

Altera's board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share payable on

June 1, 2011 to stockholders of record on May 10, 2011.

"Despite the anticipated slow down in first quarter sales following a remarkable 2010 growth year, we experienced double-digit sequential growth in our 40-nm based devices, as these products are now entering the best part of their growth phase," said John Daane, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board. "Our initial 28-nm Stratix V devices, the first high-end FPGAs at this advanced node, are now shipping—giving us additional capabilities to accelerate the displacement of ASICs and ASSPs."

Several recent accomplishments mark the company's continuing progress:

• At 3.9 billion transistors, more than any other commercially available integrated circuit, Altera has set a semiconductor industry milestone with the initial shipments of its 28-nm Stratix® V FPGAs. Stratix V devices are the only FPGAs to leverage TSMC's 28-nm high-performance (28HP) process for maximum performance and bandwidth. The 28HP process, combined with optimizations in the FPGA, enable Altera to dramatically increase the capabilities of this high-end device family. This approach also delivers better performance with lower power consumption than competing FPGAs. The level of functionality implemented in a single Stratix V FPGA, including 28-Gbps transceivers, variable-precision DSP blocks and embedded HardCopy® blocks, enable the device to be leveraged into the highest performance, highest bandwidth applications across the wide range of markets served by Altera.
• Altera's Stratix V FPGAs have received the Application of Electronic Technique China magazine's (AET China) "2010 Top Product Award" in the programmable logic category. The Top Product Award recognizes technologies that have demonstrated the greatest innovations targeting the systems design community. This is the second consecutive year that Altera has received this award, selected by AET China readers and industry experts. In granting the award, AET China specifically recognized the key Stratix V architectural innovations that allow system designers to achieve higher bandwidth and lower power through an unprecedented level of system integration.
• Altera's variable-precision DSP block architecture won the DesignCon 2011 DesignVision Award in the semiconductor and IC category. This unique architecture is implemented within Altera's portfolio of 28-nm FPGAs to increase system performance, reduce power consumption and reduce architectural constraints for DSP algorithm designers. The variable-precision approach allows each DSP block in the FPGA to be configured at compile time to closely match the unique level of precision called for in a customer's design. The variable-precision DSP block architecture supports high-bandwidth, high precision applications, as well as delivering more cost effective silicon usage for lower performance requirements. The DesignVision Award recognizes technologies, applications, products and services judged to be the most unique and beneficial to the industry. 
• Altera has announced plans for optically interconnected programmable devices, allowing a wide range of applications to significantly increase their bandwidth capabilities while also reducing overall system complexity, cost and power. Because transceivers are vital for this major industry development, Altera is leveraging its technology leadership in this area to make this vision a reality. Altera's deep knowledge of system interconnect technologies will drive the creation of direct optical interfaces in future device packages, breaking through the bandwidth and signal integrity barriers inherent in copper technology. For instance, in computer and storage intensive applications such as data centers, the integration of optical interfaces into device packages could reduce power by 70 percent to 80 percent while increasing port density and bandwidth by orders of magnitude. Additional information, and a White Paper on this topic, is available at www.altera.com/optical.

First Quarter Earnings Conference Call

A conference call will be held today at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the quarter's results and management's current business outlook. The web cast and subsequent replay will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.altera.com. A telephonic replay of the call may be accessed later in the day by calling (719) 457-0820 and referencing confirmation code 258712. The telephonic replay will be available for two weeks following the live call.

Second Quarter Update

Altera's second quarter business update will be issued in a press release available after the market close on June 2, 2011.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not historical are "forward-looking statements" as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally written in the future tense and/or preceded by words such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," or other words that imply or predict a future state. Forward-looking statements include any projection of revenue, gross margin, expense or other financial items discussed in the Business Outlook section of this press release, accelerating ASIC and ASSP displacement, and Altera's plans for optically interconnected programmable devices. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that can cause actual results to differ from those currently anticipated, due to a number of factors, including without limitation, current global economic conditions, supply chain or demand impacts from the recent Japanese earthquake, customer business environment, customer inventory levels, vertical market mix, market acceptance of the company's products, product introduction schedules, the rate of growth of the company's new products including Cyclone® IV, Arria® II, Stratix® V,  Stratix IV FPGAs, MAX® V CPLDs and HardCopy®  IV device families, changes in the mix of our business between prototyping and production-based demand, as well as changes in economic conditions and other risk factors discussed in documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from time to time. Copies of Altera's SEC filings are posted on the company's website and are available from the company without charge. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and, except as required by law, the company does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

About Altera

Altera programmable solutions enable system and semiconductor companies to rapidly and cost-effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Find out more about Altera's FPGA, CPLD and ASIC devices at www.altera.com. Follow Altera via Facebook, RSS and Twitter.

ALTERA, ARRIA, CYCLONE, HARDCOPY, MAX, NIOS, QUARTUS, STRATIX words and logos are trademarks of Altera Corporation and registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other words and logos identified as trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective holders as described at www.altera.com/legal.  

Product Category Description

• New Products include the Stratix® IV (including E, GX and GT), Arria® II (including GX and GZ), Cyclone® IV (including E and GX), MAX® V, and HardCopy® IV devices. 
• Mainstream Products include the Stratix III, Cyclone III, MAX® II, and HardCopy III devices. 
• Mature and Other Products include the Stratix II (and GX), Stratix (and GX), Arria GX, Cyclone II, Cyclone, Classic™, MAX 3000A, MAX 7000, MAX 7000A, MAX 7000B, MAX 7000S, MAX 9000, HardCopy II, HardCopy, FLEX® series, APEX™ series, Mercury™, and Excalibur™ devices, configuration and other devices, intellectual property cores, and software and other tools.

Note:

(1) Effective January 2011, the product classification (new, mainstream and mature & other) has changed. All prior period data has been adjusted to conform to the current classification. Data calculated under both the new and former classification are available in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.altera.com.

SOURCE Altera Corporation