Altera is moving in on its long time rival Xilinx and expects to be only 3 points of market share behind by the end of this year, according to Altera’s CEO John Daane
"Analysts expectations are that we’ll come in with $2.2bn of revenues this year and Xilinx will come in at $2.35bn," Daane told EW.Last year revenues were $1.954bn. What has helped Altera to close the gap is success at the 40nm node.
"At 40nm we have two thirds - 67% - of the market," said Daane, "we will be No.1 in the market in the next couple of years."
One consequence of that is a move to increase R&D spend by about 30% from 2010’s $265m to $330m this year.
The extra resources will go into developing microprocessors and IP blocks, said Daane.
Altera’s approach of tailored architectures and processes to develop platforms which are applicable to a variety of applications is delivering higher profitability, said Daane.
An example he gave was a 3G/4G basestation – "a single systems design with multiple implementations" he described it. It’s an approach which defrays the huge cost of IC design, not to mention re-spins.
28nm is beginning to produce revenues at Altera, said Daane, with $2m of sales on 28nm in Q3 2011.
Automotive is the fastest growing sector of the industry but is still represents only 3% of the market, said Daane. Last year it was only 1%.
Daane is keen to change perceptions of Altera. "Altera has changed, and it’s time to think differently about us," he said, "we are system design partners with our customers, we’re not just a component supplier."
