Gartner數據顯示，相較於整體IC一年3000億鎂的市場規模，44億鎂的可編程邏輯IC市場不算引人注目。除了兩小（Lattice、Microsemi），Altera與Xilinx兩大各擁39.1%、49.6%市占，舉足輕重，更有令人羨慕的穩定高毛利，即使在不景氣時期也未稍減。

過去20年，兩家毛利率約莫在60~70%！Altera在2010~2013四年間的毛利率僅稍遜於七成，未來目標也是維持在67~70%間。同時期，Xilinx的毛利率在65%之譜，最近則上揚至69%！截至今年第一季的15年間，Altera在毛利率上一直領先Xilinx，原因是前者一直以TSMC為獨家代工夥伴，而後者則採多供應商政策，涉及UMC、IBM、Toshiba、Samsung，直到28nm節點，才讓TSMC獨家代工。

歷經90年代跟2009~2011間優於整體IC市場的高速成長，有人認為在先進製程造晶成本走高的趨勢下，兩家PLD大廠後市可期。


I don’t buy Altera’s claim that manufacturing costs to make ASICs will rise more sharply as chips get made at smaller and smaller feature sizes. It is not clear to us why the design costs rise with each more advanced semiconductor node to the extent that Altera claims.
- David Wong of Wells Fargo

28nm節點之後，Xilinx對TSMC不離不棄，反倒是後者老客戶Altera將自14nm製程起轉投Intel，因為Altera將會是唯一能享用Intel未來先進製程的PLD廠商！

Using two foundries instead of one inevitably involves more R&D and other costs than using a single foundry. However, the competitive advantages Altera will achieve through its arrangement with Intel will far outweigh any additional effort and cost needed to work with an additional foundry [...] The manufacturing agreement includes clauses that under certain circumstances will make Altera the only major FPGA maker that will have access to Intel’s foundry services for technology at the 14nm and subsequent nodes.