Counterfeit Cyclone II in China market?

Hi John,

I'm not an Altera Employee, so I don't know if there are currently known Altera Clones in the market, but I do know there are large grey markets, that often deal in sub-standard, and re-marked parts.

Almost all the manufacturers are very interested in these types of issues. You can contact your rep, and have them verify the legitimacy of the lot, and if it's a legitimate Altera part, they can do a failure analysis on the part and hopefully tell you if it was simply too hot of a flow temp that caused the damage, ESD or other issue.

As far as the difference in markings, Altera probably uses multiple packaging houses, so differences in markings is not un-heard of, but this they will verify this as well. Check the country of origin marking between the two and see if they are the same, If they are not, it's a clue.

Pete