|
PHILIPS AND XILINX COLLABORATE IN DESIGN
OF LOW COST PCI EXPRESS SOLUTIONS
Jointly developed designs enable easy migration
from legacy PC bus architectures
to PCI Express high-speed interface
EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands and SAN JOSE, Calif., - September 20,
2004 - Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) and Xilinx,
Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today announced plans to cooperate in the design
of semiconductor hardware and intellectual property related to the
PCI Express interface. The collaboration is expected to result in
PCI Express solutions that help current and prospective customers
easily migrate from legacy PC bus architectures to the new, simplified
PCI Express high-speed interface architecture. The move to PCI Express
by consumer product manufacturers will ultimately benefit consumers,
offering fast and easy transfer of video and graphics from PCs to
home theatre equipment.
"Our customers are looking for an easy migration path from
current bus architectures to the high-speed capabilities of PCI
Express. We are pleased to work closely with Philips, a clear leader
in PCI Express PHY devices to bring about such a solution,"
said Mark Aaldering, vice president of IP Solutions and the Embedded
Processing Division at Xilinx. "By working closely with Philips,
we hope to bring the benefits of programmability and PCI Express
to an even broader audience - to run premium movies and sound on
PCs and other emerging consumer electronics systems and products."
"Xilinx has an outstanding track record with its work related
to PCI technology, and its Spartan family of low-cost FPGAs provide
a broad customer base with a great deal of flexibility for the design
of PCs, peripherals, consumer-oriented electronics products and
other systems benefiting from the performance and elegance of PCI
Express," said Frank Caris, general manager of Emerging Products,
Philips Semiconductors. "We look forward to working together
to bring new possibilities for simplified, fast connections within
the Connected Home as well as a multitude of other peripheral and
embedded applications."
Based on Xilinx 90nm Spartan-3 FPGAs and Philips PCI Express PHY
devices, the solution provides maximum flexibility benefits addressing
a wide variety of applications across many volume ranges. PCI Express
is the successor to Intel's PCI and PCI-X architectures used in
PCs throughout the world, offering scalable bandwidth from 2.5 to
80 Gbps and advanced features to meet the Input/Output needs of
next generation systems. Its layered architecture allows future
add-ons for connections to copper, optical and other emerging physical
signaling media. Ideal for making the transition from legacy interfaces
to PCI Express, the solution supports eXPIPE interfaces between
the physical and logical layers.
The PCI Express bus interface offers a number of inherent improvements
beyond the pure speed play. It is a two-wire connection replacing
current 16- or 32-wire bus connections. It also puts out less electro
magnetic interference (EMI), in addition to requiring fewer layers
on the printed circuit board, thereby reducing manufacturing and
material costs.
Philips and Xilinx expect to have further announcements related
to PCI Express technology activities in early 2005.
About Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGAs
The Xilinx Spartan-3 family is the only 90nm FPGA family in production
and is the world's lowest-cost FPGA, offering unrivaled price points
with more density and performance features than any other device
in its class. Xilinx Spartan Series FPGAs can be found in a wide
number of consumer electronic devices throughout the world today.
About Philips PHY Devices
Philips is a leader in wired and wireless PHY solutions in a range
of semiconductor connectivity products including USB, wireless local
area network and personal area network devices. The PCI Express
PHY is designed for high-performance physical layer devices. It
is an easy-to-use, low-power solution with excellent timing characteristics.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI)
is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's
largest, with sales of $32.8 billion (EUR 29 billion) in 2003. With
activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle
and technology and 165,600 employees in more than 60 countries,
it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging
and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers,
lighting and one-chip TV products. News from Philips is located
at www.semiconductors.philips.com.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
-30-
# 04104
|
|
