Xilinx Press Release #0213

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 4, 2002—With the introduction of its new Virtex-II Pro^TM FPGAs, Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) provides the industry's first programmable connectivity platform by integrating up to sixteen Rocket I/O^²TM 3.125 Gigabit per second (Gbps) serial transceivers and up to four embedded PowerPC processors onto a single device. Using the new Virtex-II Pro FPGAs, network equipment designers can now develop programmable systems supporting emerging high performance optical networking standards. The new FPGAs support existing parallel standards such as POS PHY Level 4 and Flexbus 4, as well as emerging serial standards such as 3GIO, InfiniBand architecture, and Serial RapidIO, making Virtex-II Pro the ideal platform for bridging two generations of connectivity technology. 

By combining support for parallel and serial interfaces with embedded processors onto a single device, customers now have the ultimate end-to-end connectivity platform for next generation, data communications systems. The four embedded PowerPC processors are ideal for implementing high-level communication protocols and control plane functions associated with such interfaces. In addition, the Virtex-II^(TM) fabric of Virtex-II Pro is the leading platform for implementing network processing function. 

"With the tremendous increase in connectivity bandwidth requirements, there is a rapid move away from parallel interface architectures towards easier to use high-speed multi-Gigabit serial standards. This has created an integration dilemma for designers implementing both parallel and serial components," said Babak Hedayati, senior director of Product Solutions Marketing and Partnerships at Xilinx. "The Virtex-II Pro device supports both types of interfaces on a single device effectively addressing this challenge. This allows designers to easily migrate to new connectivity technologies without jeopardizing their investments."

“InfiniBand architecture will change the way servers are built and deployed,” said Jim Pappas, director of initiative marketing for Intel’s Enterprise Platform Group. “The flexibility of bridging FPGAs supporting multiple I/O interconnects including InfiniBand technology allows the industry more flexibility in their enterprise designs.”

Industry Trend Towards High-speed Serial Interfaces

An example of the trend towards parallel to serial IO is a 10 Gbps interface that can be implemented using only four 3.125 Gbps serial transceivers rather than its parallel implementation using sixteen high-speed Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) I/Os. This significantly reduces printed circuit board (PCB) complexity and component count in addition to eliminating existing parallel interface challenges such as channel skew, jitter, and duty cycle distortion through the use of clock/data recovery schemes.

Collaboration with Leading ASSP Suppliers

Xilinx provides the industry's most comprehensive library of ready-to-use intellectual property (IP) cores for parallel and serial interfaces for use with the Virtex-II Pro devices. Serial interfaces include 10 Gigabit Ethernet Attachment Unit interface (XAUI) and 1 Gigabit Ethernet PHY interface. Parallel interfaces include Flexbus 4, HyperTransport, PCI, PCI-X, POS PHY Level 3 and 4, and RapidIO. To ensure interoperability between its Virtex-II Pro FPGAs and other system components, Xilinx continues to successfully collaborate with leading network ASSP suppliers such as AMCC, Intel, MindSpeed, Motorola and PMC-Sierra. Since Virtex-II Pro FPGAs provide proven interoperability, designers are free to focus on system level issues rather than connectivity issues. 

"Based on the proven SkyrailTM 3.125 Gbps IO technology, the high-performance Virtex-II Pro RocketIO transceivers provide seamless connections to both our iScale^TM switch fabric and our family of backplane transceivers to deliver maximum network bandwidth efficiency for packet switching and crossconnect applications," said Richard Egan, vice president of MindSpeed's San Jose Development Center. 

“RapidIO is a key interconnect technology for networking and embedded systems requiring extremely high transmission rates of data between chips or between boards,” said Dan Bouvier, architecture manager of Motorola’s High Performance Systems Design Center. “The Virtex-II Pro FPGAs, including both 3.125 Gbps serial transceivers and LVDS I/Os, will play an important role in supporting high performance networking systems, including linking Motorola communications processors, network processors, and customer specific logic using both Parallel and Serial RapidIO interconnect technology."

"Virtex-II Pro is yet another powerful building block at the disposal of system designers implementing higher layer solutions to interconnect with our POS-PHY Level 4 based XENON family of devices," said Steve Perna, vice president and general manager, PMC-Sierra's Optical Networking Division.

Xilinx Launches Central SystemIO Website 

Xilinx also announced today a new SystemIO website http://www.xilinx.com/systemio. The  website is an unparalleled source of information for accelerating the design of complex networking, communications and storage systems based on high-speed I/O technologies. The site provides system architects and designers with complete information on XilinxÒ SystemIO solutions, a wide variety of system interconnectivity standards, related IP cores, partner reference designs and design services. Additionally, the site provides information on system tools, reference designs and application notes required to accelerate system time-to-market. 

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.