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XILINX AND UMC DEVELOP INDUSTRY'S FIRST FPGAs
TO UTILIZE TRIPLE-OXIDE 90nm TECHNOLOGY
New technology used to manufacture Virtex-4 FPGAs
expected to cut power consumption in half while significantly increasing
performance over previous generation devices
HSINCHU, Taiwan, and SAN JOSE, Calif., JUNE 14, 2004 - Xilinx,
Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), the world's leading supplier of programmable
logic solutions and inventor of the FPGA, and leading global semiconductor
foundry UMC (NYSE: UMC), today announced production of the industry's
first FPGA products manufactured using 90nm triple-oxide technology.
By using three different thicknesses of the insulating gate oxide
layers, the companies were able to break the traditional tradeoff
between power consumption and performance, and expect to lower static
and dynamic power consumption by 50 percent from previous generation
devices with the Virtex-4 platform FPGA family. Xilinx has already
received initial wafers from UMC using this breakthrough triple-oxide
90nm technology.
"Power management has become a critical requirement of customers,
especially with increased performance, bandwidth and the move to
90nm technology," said Erich Goetting, vice president and general
manager of the Advanced Products Division at Xilinx. "Therefore,
reduced power consumption and increased silicon performance were
both high on the priority list for Virtex-4 development. Working
with UMC, we have leveraged the benefits of triple-oxide technology
on 90nm to break the industry trend of increased power consumption
when moving from 130nm to 90nm. The new Virtex-4 platform FPGAs
will reduce both static and dynamic power consumption by up to 50
percent."
UMC and Xilinx delivered the industry's first 90nm FPGAs in March
of 2003. UMC is now in volume production for various 90nm products
including the Xilinx Spartan-3 family of FPGAs.
Dr. S.W. Sun, senior vice president in charge of UMC's Central Research
and Development, said, "UMC develops technologies that are
targeted for our customer's requirements. For the 90nm node this
includes triple-gate oxide, in which Xilinx has exploited for their
new line of FPGAs. We are pleased to deliver enabling technologies
to help Xilinx achieve their performance targets for the Virtex-4
product line, and look forward to reaching future technology milestones
together."
About Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs
Enabled by the revolutionary Advanced Silicon Modular Block (ASMBL™)
architecture, the Virtex-4 product line is the world's first FPGA
family with multiple domain-optimized platforms, offering breakthrough
FPGA capability at every price point. The initial Virtex-4 family
includes three platforms; Virtex-4 LX optimized for logic-intensive
designs, Virtex-4 SX optimized for very high performance signal
processing and Virtex-4 FX for embedded processing and high-speed
serial connectivity. Each platform will offer a range of device
options. With up to 200,000 logic cells and up to 500 MHz performance,
the Virtex-4 family delivers twice the density and up to twice the
performance of any FPGA in the industry currently in production.
Initial engineering samples of the Virtex-4 LX Platform FPGAs will
be available in summer 2004, with SX and FX platforms to follow.
About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry
that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning
every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge
foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SoC)
designs, including 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, and mixed signal/RFCMOS.
UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan and
Singapore-based UMCi are both in volume production for a variety
of customer products. UMC employs over 9,000 people worldwide and
has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United
States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
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