Xilinx Press Release #0212

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 4, 2002—Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today announced its Virtex-II Pro^TM FPGAs offer the highest level of performance with the lowest system cost available of any programmable solution. Through the integration of up to four IBM PowerPCs and sixteen 3.125 Gbps serial transceivers onto the FPGA fabric, system architects can now take advantage of unprecedented hardware/software tradeoffs in a programmable environment to optimize overall system performance and costs. Additionally with the integrated serial transceivers, system architects require fewer integrated circuits and pins allowing for more cost-effective implementation of emerging high speed connectivity standards like 3GIO, Infiniband, and Serial RapidIO. 

"The revolutionary performance and functionality of the Virtex-II Pro device coupled with the ability to make hardware/software tradeoffs offers system architects tremendous price and performance advantages through unprecedented system integration," said Erich Goetting, vice president and general manager of the Advanced Products Division at Xilinx. "By integrating more features and functions onto the FPGA, Xilinx is offering a solution for developing complete programmable systems at a lower cost."

With up to four embedded PowerPC processors each running at 300 MHz and abundant on-chip block RAM and distributed RAM, the Virtex-II Pro device allows designers to take advantage of on-chip memory to dramatically increase system performance. Additionally, the high-bandwidth connection between the Virtex-II Pro fabric and the PowerPC processors offers significantly higher data and processing throughput compared to off-chip processors interfaced to an FPGA. 

The Virtex-II Pro FPGA allows system architects to implement system-level management and control functions more efficiently and easily than if implemented in a discrete off-chip processor. In addition, the Virtex-II Pro FPGA's serial transceivers result in fewer integrated circuits required conform to emerging I/O standards, such as 3GIO and RapidIO, or to achieve required data throughput. 

Designers now need fewer pins to implement the design and fewer chips on the board, resulting in a lower bill of materials cost. Additional cost savings can be realized through the reduction of PC board size. 

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.