One of the industry’s poorest-kept secrets – Intel’s desire to purchase Altera – has finally come to fruition. For around $16 billion, give or take a few hundred million, Intel now owns the industry’s second largest programmable logic vendor (second to Xilinx, of course).

The long-term effects of this deal could be huge, marrying the companies’ two hugely successful technologies, namely processing and programmable logic. And Intel has shown, judging by its last two highly publicized acquisitions, Wind River and McAfee, that it knows how to integrate large enterprises. Both of those acquisitions started out operating as completely independent entities, but are now moving under the Intel umbrella, with McAfee moving far quicker than Wind River.

The short-term effects of the latest acquisition could play out to be quite interesting, as Intel now owns licenses to ARM cores, the technology of one of its biggest rivals. Will it simply shed this technology in favor of its own processor cores? Or will it incorporate ARM into its long-term strategy? Time will tell, but it’s a pretty significant decision either way.

To better understand how this plays out on the mil-aero side, check out a blog written by my counterpart, John McHale.