Intel has launched a standalone FPGA (field-programmable gate array) business, branding it Altera - after the company it acquired in 2015.
The company will sell reconfigurable chips for systems across data center, cloud, industrial, and automotive markets and be run by Sandra Rivera, the former head of Intel’s data center and AI (DCAI) organization, with long-time programmable solutions group executive Shannon Poulin in the role of COO.
The announcement was made during the company’s FPGA Vision Webcast on February 29, during which Rivera said Altera will have an addressable market of $55bn in the coming years.
Altera was originally a chip manufacturing company that was acquired by Intel in 2015 for $16.7 billion and merged into the company’s data center unit under the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) brand.
It was spun out again last year and the brand has now been reestablished for the new spin-out.
FPGA chips consist of logic blocks that can be configured by the customer on the spot to accelerate specific workloads. These programmable chips can then sit alongside microprocessors to make hardware that is faster and more open to a software-defined approach.
Intel said its FPGA chips will be the only ones with AI built into the fabric, with Altera also set to release an FPGA AI Suite and OpenVINO to generate optimized IP based on standard frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch.
“Altera’s FPGAs provide flexible solutions to better address changing market demands, such as seamlessly integrating critical AI inferencing capabilities, and to better intercept evolving standards, like PCI Express, CXL, Ethernet and 6G wireless,” the company said in a blog post.
Those FPGAs were unveiled by Riveria in the webcast, who previewed four new chips: Agilex 3, Agilex 5, Agilex 7, and Agilex 9.
Agilex 7 has been optimized for use in data centers, networks, and defense systems, while the Agilex 9 has been developed for radar and military aerospace use cases. Both had already been announced by the company, with Rivera stating the Agilex 7 has been released for production and the Agilex 9 is currently in volume production.
The Agilex 5 is the “only FPGA fabric infused with AI,” with Intel claiming it has 1.6x better performance per watt versus competing products – although it did not name those products. Geared toward embedded and edge applications, the Agilex 5 is now broadly available.
Meanwhile, the Agilex 3 will be designated as Altera’s low-power line of FPGAs for cloud, communications, and intelligent edge applications. Intel said the Agilex 3 is “coming soon.”
At Mobile World Congress earlier this week, Intel previewed its latest Xeon processors, code-named Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids-D, alongside a new Edge platform. Those chips have been designed to handle applications and AI workloads and form part of Intel’s ‘AI Everywhere’ vision which will support 5G, Edge, and enterprise infrastructures.
