Both Altera Corp and Xilinx Inc have narrowed their March quarter estimates, now each guiding for lower sales losses than previously expected.

San Jose-based Altera Monday afternoon said its Q1 sales are now expected to be down 15% to 20% compared with Q4 2008 sales of $314.5 million. Prior guidance for Q1 sales was for sequential sales to decline in the range of 15% to 25%.

The programmable logic company largely attributed the improved outlook to better than expected demand from OEMs providing equipment for Chinese 3G wireless networks. However, Altera noted that overall its Q1 sales outlook remains muted as a result of slowing global business conditions.

Altera also said it remains on track to sell more than $1 million worth of 40-nm FPGAs in Q1, including sales of the Stratix IV GX and the just introduced Stratix IV GT families.

Meanwhile, fellow programmable logic company Xilinx said sales are expected to be down 13% to 18% sequentially in the March quarter, its fiscal Q4 2009.

The upward revision compares to the San Jose-based company's previous sales guidance of down 15% to 25% sequentially. Xilinx recorded $ $458.4 million in December quarter sales.

Xilinx also noted better than expected wireless communications sales when stating its revision this morning.

Xilinx said its gross margin guidance of 61% to 63% and operating expense guidance of flat to slightly down sequentially remain unchanged. The company is scheduled to report March quarter financial results on April 22.

Both Altera and Xilinx originally issued March quarter guidances in January.

By: DocMemory
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