Xilinx Press Release #0204

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 4, 2002—Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX), the leader in programmable logic solutions, announced today that it is shipping the Virtex-II Pro^TM FPGA family: the world's first FPGA to immerse high performance IBM PowerPC processors in the Virtex-II^TM fabric with multi-gigabit serial transceivers to solve high-performance architectural challenges. Using its patent-pending IP Immersion technology, Xilinx has integrated these two essential requirements for next-generation systems, RISC processing and high-speed serial technology, in the popular Virtex-II fabric, which includes the advanced Active Interconnect, BlockRAM, and clock management features. This unprecedented level of integration offers systems designers the highest level of performance with the lowest system cost available from any programmable solution. A Q&A document and a technical backgrounder are also available for Virtex-II Pro announcement. 

“The Virtex-II Pro family represents one of the most significant product introductions for Xilinx since inventing the FPGA in 1984. It shifts the usage model for programmable technology from logic to systems,” said Wim Roelandts, Xilinx president and CEO. “With new Virtex-II Pro FPGAs, system designers can leverage the advantages of programmability at the architectural level. Virtex-II Pro family represents the fruition of decades of experience in microprocessor from IBM, high-speed serial from Conexant, development tools from Wind River, and our programmable logic technologies. Xilinx partnered with leaders in each of these areas to deliver a revolutionary product.” 

"Because we had access in advance to the preliminary information for the XilinxÒ Virtex-II Pro FPGAs, we were able to evaluate the architecture for our needs,” Mr. Stefano Gastaldello, Optical Multiserve Networks/ASICs lab manager, Alcatel, Italy. We've verified and are encouraged that it matches very well with the architecture of our next generation of high capacity optical multiservice nodes and gateways."

Industry leaders collaboration

IBM and Xilinx collaborated to immerse the leading embedded processor architecture, the IBM PowerPC, in the Virtex-II fabric. The Virtex-II Pro family supports up to four PowerPC 405 processor cores each running at up to 300 MHz. The Xilinx immersion method allows hard IP cores to be diffused at any coordinate within the Virtex fabric while maintaining smooth integration with the surrounding array. IP Immersion technology intimately couples all of the high-speed buses on the core directly to the programmable fabric giving significantly higher system-level performance than an equivalent discrete processor. 

"Combining our respective leadership technologies in programmable logic and RISC processor cores is the natural next step in high-performance embedded system design," said Ron Tessitore, vice president, PowerPC and Networking Technology Development, IBM Microelectronics. "The popularity and widespread acceptance of the IBM PowerPC family underlines the success of the architecture for networking, communications, pervasive computing, and IT/storage applications. The synergy with Xilinx is borne in the successful delivery of this revolutionary semiconductor family." 

First with Multi-gigabit serial I/O support

Virtex-II Pro FPGAs also feature RocketIO^TM technology, the first multi-port, 3.125 Gb/s serial interface available in a programmable solution. This combination represents a complete solution for high-performance interface standards such as Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 3GIO, SerialATA, Infiniband, and FibreChannel. Based on an enhanced version of the proven Conexant SkyRail^TM technology, the gigabit serial interface significantly simplifies integrating high-bandwidth interfaces. System designers have one platform that delivers emerging connectivity standards and allows them to increase their I/O performance. 

World-class development tools

Software development, hardware development, and system integration solutions include compilers and integrated development environments from Wind River and GNU. The Xilinx System Generator for PowerPC tool automatically builds custom PowerPC processor systems with Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGAs. The System Generator for PowerPC tool enables designers to architect, customize, and generate the hardware and software components for an entire processor system. Hardware debug options are also available from Wind River and Agilent. The new tools, coupled with Wind River embedded software tools, free GNU tools and ISE 4.2i logic design tools from Xilinx, provide customers with access to a complete tool chain for rapidly building programmable systems. 

New Development Paradigm and On-Demand Architectural Synthesis

The combination of the programmable system platform with next generation systems development tools enables a new development paradigm capable of running hardware and software in situ at speed with real-time observability.  This results in significant reduction in system design verification time leading to faster time to production. In addition, development teams can provide dedicated hardware early in the development cycle to software engineers, further reducing design time and development cost for high performance systems.

Beyond this, the use of behavioral synthesis technologies enables On-Demand Architectural Synthesis, which provides the capability to optimize the system architecture for an application. This includes the mix of hardware elements as well as hardware/software partitioning. On-Demand Architectural Synthesis allows partitioning for optimal system performance during definition, during debug, and after product shipment. Designers can now get the performance they need without costly and time-consuming re-designs.

System-level price/performance leadership

In addition to flexibility and power in Virtex-II Pro FPGAs, the high levels of system integration with RocketI/O and processor technologies enable dramatic system cost reduction. The XC2VP4^TM, the XC2VP7^TM, and the XC2VP20^TM devices are available now. The remaining members, the XC2VP2^TM and XC2VP50^TM will be available in mid-2002. High-volume pricing (25,000 units) in 2004 for the XC2VP4, XC2VP7, and XC2VP20 devices is $120, $180, and $525, respectively. 

About Xilinx 

Xilinx is the leading supplier of complete programmable logic solutions, including advanced integrated circuits, software design tools, predefined system functions delivered as intellectual property cores, and unparalleled field engineering support. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Xilinx invented the field programmable gate array (FPGA) and fulfills more than half of the world demand for these devices today. Xilinx solutions enable customers to reduce significantly the time required to develop products for the computer, peripheral, telecommunications, networking, industrial control, instrumentation, aerospace, defense, low power portable and consumer markets. For more information, visit the Xilinx web site at www.xilinx.com. 

#0204
 

Editorial Contact:	Product Marketing Contact:
Ann Duft	Rob Schreck
Xilinx, Inc.	Xilinx, Inc.
(408) 879-4726	(408) 879-6701
publicrelations@xilinx.com	rob.schreck@xilinx.com