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Xilinx Press Release #0361

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

XILINX AND IGNIS OPTICS DEMONSTRATE INTEROPERABILITY WITH ROCKETPHY 10 Gbps SERDES AND XFP OPTICAL TRANSCEIVER

Xilinx and Ignis Optics demonstrate 10 Gbps optical I/F solution at industry event

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 6, 2003 - Today at Programmable World 2003, Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) announced the demonstration and interoperability of its new RocketPHY™ physical layer electronic transceiver family with Ignis Optics's IGF-3000 series XFP optical transceiver devices. Using these two products in conjunction, the IGF-3000 XFP and the Xilinx RocketPHY 10 Gbps transceivers enable the industry's lowest-cost 10 Gbps serial solutions to be easily deployed. The RocketPHY and XFP module interoperability demonstration will be showcased today at Programmable World 2003 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California.

The IGF-3000 series XFP product family, which complies with the XFP Multi-Source Agreement (MSA), is a 10 Gbps small form-factor pluggable optical transceiver module that dramatically lowers the costs of 10 Gbps optical networking applications. The RocketPHY family of ultra-low jitter 10 Gbps CMOS physical layer transceivers (PHYs) supports 9.9532 Gbps to 10.709 Gbps operation and the XFI electrical interface defined by the XFP specification.

"We continue to show the flexibility of our IO-PKG™ optical technology by demonstrating module interoperability with industry leaders like Xilinx," said Michael Lebby, chief executive officer at Ignis Optics. "Compatibility of our IGF-3000 with multiple reference boards and physical layer transceivers reduces time and cost for our customers by allowing them to model system design and functional testing prior to expensive board builds."

"Xilinx's proven interoperability with Ignis' XFP transceiver clearly demonstrates the expanding capabilities and flexibility of our PHY and FPGA solutions in optical communications," said Ray Johnson, vice president and general manager of the Communications Technology Division at Xilinx. "The introduction of the RocketPHY family highlights Xilinx's commitment to providing highly-integrated, end-to-end, serial solutions for a wide range of applications, including those at 10 Gbps."

About IGF-3000 Series XFP Modules
The Ignis Optics™ IGF-3000 Series optical transceiver modules are high performance, cost-effective pluggable optical solutions for serial optical data communication applications at 10 Gbps. They are designed to carry SONET, SDH, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel traffic in a compact, user-replaceable format over single mode fiber. They incorporate Ignis Optics's exclusive IO-PKG™ optical packaging platform, which is designed to scale with networking equipment platform upgrades. The IGF-3000 series is available for a variety of link lengths and is compliant with the applicable Telcordia, ITU, OIF, IEEE, and XFP MSA standards.

About the Xilinx RocketPHY Family
The Xilinx RocketPHY family of transceivers meet OC-192 SONET/SDH STM-64, FEC (OTN G.709), 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and emerging 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel standards. The RocketPHY family is also compliant with industry LAN, WAN, SAN and MAN standards including Telcordia, ITU-T, OIF SFI-4 and IEEE 802.3ae. The family of devices support operation from 9.9532 - 10.709 Gbps. The parallel side interface of the RocketPHY family seamlessly interfaces to Xilinx Virtex-II Pro™ FPGAs and other industry standard OC-192 framers and 10 Gbps MACs through XSBI and SFI-4 (OIF99.102) 16-bit differential LVDS interfaces. Both SDR and DDR modes are supported. Additional information about RocketPHY can be found at www.xilinx.com/rocketphy.

About Ignis Optics
Ignis Optics was founded in 2001 by a team of experienced optical component developers. The San Jose-based firm designs innovative new packaging for fiber-optic transceivers that enables them to offer superior single-mode performance while enabling significantly lower system costs. Ignis Optics investors include CenterPoint Ventures, InterWest Partners, Morgenthaler, and Storm Ventures. You can learn more about Ignis Optics and its products at www.ignisoptics.com. Ignis Optics, IO-PKG, and IGF-3000 are trademarks of Ignis Optics, Inc.

About Xilinx
Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) is the worldwide leader of programmable logic and programmable system solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at www.xilinx.com.

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