Altera Programmable Solutions Accelerate Blaupunkt's Automotive Navigation Product Development
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San Jose, Calif., November 28, 2006-Blaupunkt reduced its time to market and minimized the component count of its TravelPilot Rome auto navigation system by using Altera Corporation's (NASDAQ:ALTR) Cyclone(TM) FPGAs and Nios® II embedded processors, the two companies announced today. Choosing Altera's programmable solutions over ASICs or ASSPs gives Blaupunkt an accelerated product development model that enables the company to quickly bring additional automotive navigation products to market.
"The combination of Altera's programmable solutions for the automotive industry and excellent development support shortened our design time by six months and made it possible for us to meet the demanding schedule we set for the TravelPilot Rome," said Georg Sandhaus, Blaupunkt's director of system engineering. "We were able to reduce design complexity by replacing multiple standard components with a single Cyclone device hosting a Nios II embedded processor, which eased our development effort and increased our product quality and reliability."
Altera's low-cost Cyclone FPGA embedded with a Nios II soft processor provides the TravelPilot Rome with important control and display functions. The TravelPilot Rome is an after-market automotive navigation system that offers car owners many features generally found only in factory-installed navigation systems, including custom map views that highlight street geometry and the ability to identify multiple alternative routes. In addition, the TravelPilot Rome provides all the capabilities of a full-featured car stereo, including radio and playback support for both audio CDs and CD-R/RWs.
"Altera's programmable solutions for the automotive industry include a complete, easy-to-use development platform made up of a wide range of programmable logic devices (PLDs) qualified to operate in extended temperature range applications -which includes -40 degrees C to +125 degrees C; intellectual property (IP) cores such as controller area network (CAN) and local interconnect network (LIN); embedded processors; and Quartus® II design software," said Jeff Lamparter, director of Altera's automotive business unit. "The offerings reduce engineering development time and the cost of multiple silicon iterations, allowing customers such as Blaupunkt to develop innovative products and meet their time-to-market goals."
Altera's comprehensive programmable solutions are being incorporated into the most advanced automotive applications, including driver assistance, infotainment, gateways, and software-defined radio. In response to the exponential growth in the complexity of automotive digital systems, Altera offers a powerful design platform that delivers a flexible, low-risk design path for reducing complexity and optimizing cost efficiencies. To see how customers have used Altera products in automotive applications, visit altera.com/autosuccess.
About Altera
Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) is the world's pioneer in system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at www.altera.com.
About Blaupunkt
Blaupunkt, a company belonging to the Bosch Group, is an internationally leading manufacÂturer of driver information systems, car radios, car speakers and vehicle antennas. BlauÂpunkt has its main headquarters in Hildesheim, Germany, and maintains other production sites in Portugal, Hungary, Tunisia and Malaysia. The company posted sales of more than Euro 1.3 billion in fiscal year 2004 and employs some 8,300 people worldwide.
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Editor Contact:
Bruce Fienberg Dr. Joachim Siedler
Altera Corporation Blaupunkt GmbH
(408) 544-7664 +49 5121 49-4612
newsroom@altera.com Joachim.Siedler@de.bosch.com
