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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW XILINX MICROBLAZE SOFT PROCESSOR INCREASES
CLOCK FREQUENCY BY 25 PERCENT
MicroBlaze 4.00 features tightly-coupled Floating
Point Unit option
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 16, 2005 - Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today
announced immediate availability of the performance-optimized 4.00
version of its MicroBlaze™ soft processor. The 32-bit RISC
core now operates at frequencies up to 200 MHz in Virtex™-4
FPGAs delivering an impressive 25 percent increase in core performance
compared to previous versions. In addition, a new floating point
unit (FPU) option enables embedded developers to accelerate system
performance by as much as 120 times over software emulation.
The Xilinx MicroBlaze 4.00 solution is a scalable processor system
that enables designers to tune performance to match the compute
requirements of target applications and choose greater mathematical
accuracy when needed without a significant cost penalty. The enhanced
feature set also raises the bar for flexibility and ease of use
with user-configurable hardware options, improved debug capabilities,
and complete backward compatibility with earlier releases. Xilinx
will showcase the MicroBlaze 4.00 processor for the first time this
week during the Spring Processor
Forum held May 16th through 19th in San Jose, Calif.
"As the cost of designing and manufacturing custom chips continues
to soar, processor cores optimized for FPGAs have the potential
to lure designers away from ASICs and SoCs," said Tom R. Halfhill,
senior analyst of In-Stat's Microprocessor Report. "The newest
version of the Xilinx MicroBlaze processor core offers more reasons
to use an FPGA, such as higher clock speeds and an optional, tightly-coupled
FPU. In embedded applications such as motor control, industrial
machine control, multimedia, and office automation, an FPU can make
a big difference."
MicroBlaze FPU
The 32-bit single precision, IEEE-754 compatible MicroBlaze FPU
provides designers with a processor tailored to execute both integer
and floating-point operations. Integration with the MicroBlaze processor
means CPU resources like the pipeline, processor register set and
other processor resources become tightly coupled and shared with
the FPU for optimum data bandwidth. All FPU operations are enabled
through the standard programming model with full compiler, design
tool and instruction-set simulator support.
"Finding a processor to meet performance, feature, and cost
targets is very challenging. The MicroBlaze processor provides a
scalable solution that is fully customizable, area-efficient and
can be optimized for our most cost-sensitive designs," said
Said Zahrai, project manager at ABB. "The MicroBlaze 4.00 solution
with the new FPU delivers even more performance, flexibility and
ease of use, so our embedded developers can extend the life cycle
of our existing products and bring new products to market even faster."
MicroBlaze 4.00 Features
The MicroBlaze 4.00 processor also offers a host of ready-to-use,
pre-built configuration options. These include new pattern-compare
instructions for faster location of string, byte or word matches,
which are particularly useful with data-intensive multimedia applications.
User selectable features such as the configurable hardware multipliers,
divider unit, and cache links can now be disabled when not needed
to save critical logic resources.
Additionally, new debug instructions can be inserted into the processor
pipeline to make data more accessible and 15 times faster to download
for hardware debug, while also reducing overall debug logic by 50
percent. To assist the increasing number of Agilent customers using
the MicroBlaze processor, Agilent has added logic analysis support
to enable design teams to capture real-time trace for debug and
characterization.
"FPGAs play an increasingly important role in our customers'
product development, and logic analyzer measurements are critical
in the debug of these FPGAs and surrounding systems," said
Joel Woodward, senior product manager of Agilent's Design Validation
Division. "The combination of Agilent logic analyzers and Agilent's
new MicroBlaze inverse assembler will shorten debug and validation
time, and help digital designers bring new products to market faster."
Pricing & Availability
The MicroBlaze soft processor core is available as part of the Xilinx
Embedded Development Kit (EDK) U.S. list priced at $495. In addition
to the MicroBlaze core, the EDK includes a comprehensive set of
system tools to design an embedded application in a Xilinx FPGA.
The VHDL source code for the MicroBlaze core is also available for
purchase. Development boards with the MicroBlaze 4.00 processor
are also available from Xilinx and its distributors including Avnet,
Memec and Nu Horizons. For more information on MicroBlaze processor
and the EDK from Xilinx, visit www.xilinx.com/processor.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
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