San Jose, Calif., August 9, 2011—Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced it was named by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s most innovative companies. The list is a ranking of the top 100 leading-edge corporations that are driving innovation and includes companies from every market sector. Altera was one of only two semiconductor companies to make the list.

The rankings, which appear on Forbes.com and in the August 8 issue of Forbes magazine, are based on an eight-year study by Harvard Business School professor and “master of disruptive innovation” Clayton M. Christensen, along with colleagues Jeff Dyer, a professor at Brigham Young University, and Hal B. Gregersen, a professor of leadership at the Institut Europeen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD). Altera was recognized for its culture of innovation that drives the company’s success.

Throughout its 28-year history, Altera has been on the forefront of innovation in the semiconductor industry. Altera’s founders pioneered the first reprogrammable logic device in 1983, giving birth to an entirely new market segment in semiconductors. Altera continues that innovative mindset today with several recent milestones, which include shipping the industry’s first 28-nm high-performance FPGAs based on the leading-edge 28HP process, integrating 28-Gbps transceivers into an FPGA, setting an industry record for the most transistors on an integrated circuit and announcing the industry’s first optically interconnected programmable device. A list of Altera’s major technological milestones can be found at www.altera.com/corporate/about_us/history/abt-history.

About Altera

Altera® programmable solutions enable system and semiconductor companies to rapidly and cost-effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Find out more about Altera’s FPGA, CPLD and ASIC devices at www.altera.com. Follow Altera via Facebook, RSS and Twitter.