Hong Kong, February 18, 2014 – Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR) announced that it delivers high-performance, cost-effective, and scalable microwave backhaul solutions based on its advanced FPGAs and Escape Communications' QAM modem IP.

Escape Communications is a leading provider of product solutions for wireless communication equipment used in telecommunications and aerospace applications. These solutions support not only the traditional microwave backhaul market (6–42 GHz), but also emerging applications in the E-band (70/80 GHz) and V-band (60 GHz) ODR (all-outdoor radio) markets. These solutions offer convenient scalability tailored to the link capacity required between base stations and the core network, enabling mobile operators to maximize throughput capacity and spectrum efficiency using highly cost-effective FPGA and mixed-signal solutions.

Escape Communications has accumulated technical expertise and specialization in microwave backhaul solution development, ranging from IP modem cores for high-bandwidth, high-order QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) operation to drivers, function libraries, comprehensive field-proven embedded software stacks including operator applications such as web-GUI and SNMP, and comprehensive diagnostic tools.

Escape's backhaul modem IP is currently optimized for use with Altera Cyclone V, Arria V, and Arria V SoC FPGAs, operating with bandwidth up to 1 GHz and modulation schemes from QPSK to 4096 QAM. Therefore, a link operating at 1 GHz can achieve throughput of 5 Gbps or higher. Combined with Altera's carrier-grade Ethernet switch IP, this solution can accelerate the performance of traditional microwave backhaul architectures. Working in conjunction with multiple LTE Advanced features such as adaptive coding and modulation and carrier aggregation, as well as frequency (SyncE) and timing synchronization (IEEE 1588v2) support, this enables robust QoS (quality-of-service) switch operation.

Scott Bibaud, Senior Vice President of Altera's Communications and Broadcast division, stated, "As 4G networks are being rapidly deployed and capacity demands are increasing, our microwave backhaul solution enables telecom operators to conveniently meet growing bandwidth requirements as they move toward current and next-generation networks. By combining Altera's silicon and Ethernet IP with Escape's field-proven core modem IP, equipment vendors will be able to achieve product differentiation and functional agility."

Michael Stewart, CEO and Founder of Escape Communications, said, "We provide mobile equipment vendors with baseband solutions that include comprehensive field-proven software stacks, deliver superior modem functionality, performance, and transmission speed, and minimize total cost of ownership. Our solutions achieve power consumption comparable to ASSPs while enabling field upgrades unlike ASSPs, allowing customers to continually innovate in functionality and compete not only on price but on capability."

Altera and Escape are working to optimize the modem IP core for use with Altera's next-generation Arria 10 FPGAs and SoCs. The Arria 10 FPGA and SoC, combining both high performance and low power, provide ideal solutions for use in wireless base stations, mobile backhaul, and RRH (remote radio head) designs.