West Coast Engineering | Altera Corporation

Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) is a leading manufacturer of programmable logic devices. It is a member of the NASDAQ-100 group of technology stocks and the S&P 500. Altera is one of the pioneers of Programmable Logic, following notable early leaders Signetics and MMI in introducing PLDs. Altera develops many features that are geared towards system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) capability. Some of the more recent examples include embedded memory, embedded processors, embedded DSP blocks, and high-speed transceivers. The success in 130nm and 90nm product launches are good case studies. Altera's Nios II and Nios soft core processors and HardCopy II & HardCopy devices are extending Altera's reach in addressable markets, and put Altera in the world of embedded processors and structured ASICs respectively. Among its chief competitors are Xilinx, Lattice Semiconductor, Actel and QuickLogic. Altera also offers the software suite Quartus II, aimed at the design and simulation of logic circuits. Although their software suite extensively supports VHDL and Verilog as primary languages, Altera is the developer of the Hardware Description Language known as AHDL. Although the company is based in San Jose, CA, approximately 78% of its 2007 revenue was generated from sales to customers outside of North America. Its largest international markets are Japan (20%), Europe (24%) and Asia Pacific (34%).

About West Coast Engineering

For over 23 years, West Coast Engineering (WCE) has been supplying electronics to OEMs, CEMs and distributors worldwide. Located in Hawthorne California, near the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), West Coast Engineering has established itself as a premier independent distributor specializing in providing electronic components for the military, aeronautical, medical, automotive and commercial manufacturing industries. Altera Corporation is one of the hundreds of manufacturers that WCE carries on its linecard.

WCE has the techology and resources to handle any size transaction, no matter how big or small.

Quick Facts

West Coast Engineering is committed to providing the highest quality service to customers with its large diverse inventory stocked in its ISO9001:2000 and ESD compliant 70,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Year after year, West Coast Engineering has been considered a top independent distributor because of its principled reputation built on longstanding relationships with a dedicated customer base.

WCE's strategies differ from any other independent distributors. Listed below are some of the added measures that WCE takes to make sure that OEMs, CEMs and distributors have peace of mind when placing orders for electornic components, selling excess inventory, forming strategic alliances, and purchasing RoHS or
non-RoHS parts.