Thomson Selects Altera FPGAs for New Slow Motion Cameras

While millions of sports fans around the world enjoy watching their favorite teams on live television, slow motion playback allows them to relive crucial moments. Providing the underlying technology for that capability, Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR) announced today Thomson (Euronext Paris:18453) (NYSE:TMS) selected its families of FPGAs for use in its new slow motion camera. Thomson’s latest high-definition, high-speed LDK 8300 cameras use Altera’s Cyclone® III, Stratix® II GX, and Stratix III FPGAs to capture and replay athletes in action.

Similar to athletes striving to be the best in their sport, Thomson is once again raising the innovation bar in slow-motion cameras, a technology the company pioneered in 1998. The new Thomson Grass Valley LDK 8300 camera captures images at three times the frame rate of traditional HD cameras, delivering the smoothest and cleanest slow motion replay.

"As the leader in high-speed, super slow-motion cameras, we know every second and every inch counts in sports. We wanted to team up with a custom logic leader that would enable our cameras to perform at their best,” said Jan Eveleens, general manager for cameras at Thomson. "Altera was the obvious choice. The Cyclone and Stratix devices enabled the fastest video processing frame rate and the highest picture quality even under artificial lights while meeting our tight power consumption budget.”

Several Altera FPGAs can be found inside the LDK 8300 cameras. The Stratix III FPGA is at the heart of the camera, processing video at 150 High Definition (HD) fields per second (three times HD) delivering the highest quality slow-motion replays, yet consuming minimal power. The low jitter performance of the Stratix II GX FPGA with an integrated Altera SDI MegaCore® function enables Thomson’s new fibre interface to deliver extremely high data rates from the LDK 8300 back to the servers in the Outside Broadcast (OB) trucks. The Cyclone III devices with an embedded Altera Nios® soft processor contribute to the control and monitoring of the camera’s operations.

"These new cameras from Thomson are a great showcase of Altera’s family of FPGA devices,” said Arun Iyengar, senior director of Altera’s communications business unit. "Thomson is leveraging the performance and power capabilities of our Stratix II GX, Stratix III and Cyclone III FPGAs combined with our broadcast solutions to deliver its latest advanced slow motion cameras and change the way sports are covered on television.”

For more information on Altera’s broadcast solutions, visit www.altera.com/end-markets/pr/broadcast.

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 at www.altera.com.

Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylized Altera logo, specific device designations and all other words that are identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective holders.

Safe Harbor

This contains "forward-looking statements” that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words that imply a future state or that imply that a particular future event or events will occur such as "will.” Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty, including without limitation the risk that future performance is dependent on product development schedules, the design performance of software and other tools, as well as the company’s and third parties’ development technology and manufacture capabilities. Please refer to the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, copies of which are available from the company without charge.