|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
XILINX DEMONSTRATES 1 TO 5 WATTS LOWER POWER
PER FPGA IN VIRTEX-4 FAMILY COMPARED TO COMPETING FPGAS
Company releases enhanced Virtex-4 Web Power Tool version 4.1
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 24, 2005 - Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX),
the world's leading supplier of programmable logic solutions, today
announced version 4.1 of its Web Power Tool and, again, confirms
the power advantage of the Virtex-4 family of 1 to 5 Watts versus
competing FPGAs. This significant power advantage is demonstrated
through laboratory hardware measurements and simulations of the
company's Virtex-4 devices and competing 90nm production-qualified
devices. The lead in low-power consumption is achieved through the
exclusive 90nm triple-oxide technology, embedded IP and unique power-saving
configuration circuitry.
The power consumption advantages inherent to Virtex-4 FPGAs reduce
system power supply and cooling costs, improving long-term system
reliability and lowering total system costs. Furthermore, this power
reduction enables designers to achieve the highest levels of performance
in the industry without exceeding their power budget. The 1 to 5
Watts advantage in Virtex-4 devices is the total power reduction
per FPGA derived from up to 73 percent lower static power and up
to 86 percent lower dynamic power. Detailed data is available now
on the Xilinx website at www.xilinx.com/virtex4/lowpower.
"Power consumption has become an increasingly important consideration
in a very wide range of applications," said Jordan Selburn,
principal analyst at iSuppli. "Excess power impacts system
costs through more expensive packaging requirements, fans, heat
sinks, etc."
"Using real-world hardware measurements at realistic junction
temperatures in the lab, we compared our devices head-to-head with
competitive 90nm devices," said Andy DeBaets, senior director
of systems and application engineering of the Advanced Products
Division at Xilinx. "Despite competitors' attempts to overcome
their power consumption disadvantage by presenting revised data,
Virtex-4 devices demonstrate an indisputable 1 to 5 Watts lower
power."
Lower Power at Realistic Junction Temperatures
Temperature and power consumption are inter-dependent. This is critical
for static power as leakage current increases with temperature.
FPGA Designers for networking, wireless, storage and other applications
have ambient temperatures in the chassis that significantly exceed
room temperature - this leads to junction temperatures of 85oC and
beyond for many systems. Any power consumption data acquisition
and comparison must be done at least at Tj=85oC. Competitive comparisons
at lower junction temperatures (e.g., 25oC) are insufficient and
not indicative of realistic operating conditions.
Virtex-4 Web Power Tool Version 4.1 Available Now
The latest version 4.1 web power, available now at www.xilinx.com/virtex4/lowpower provides users with several new enhancements including power estimation
for the hard-IP FIFO capability present in all Virtex-4 devices.
Version 4.1 also provides support for Xilinx Virtex-4 FX devices
giving power data for the embedded IBM PowerPC processor and RocketIO
multi-gigabit transceivers. Further, the tool now allows the ability
to override default Theta-JA (Junction to Ambient Thermal Resistance)
values for the FPGA, allowing designers to estimate power consumption
using their specific heat sink characteristics. Additionally, thermal
support for all 17 devices and all Virtex-4 packages in the LX,
SX, and FX platforms is also provided.
About Xilinx Virtex-4 Platform FPGAs
Named 2004 Product of the Year by Electronic Products Magazine,
Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs deliver more options, higher performance and
lower power than any other FPGA family available today. With more
than 100 technical innovations, the Virtex-4 family consists of
17 devices and three domain-optimized platforms; Virtex-4 LX FPGAs
optimized for logic-intensive designs, Virtex-4 SX FPGAs optimized
for high-performance signal processing, and Virtex-4 FX FPGAs optimized
for high-speed serial connectivity and embedded processing. A multi-platform
approach makes it possible for customers to select the optimal mix
of resources for their application to achieve the highest functionality
and breakthrough performance at the lowest cost. Devices are shipping
now. For more information on the Virtex-4 product family, visit
www.xilinx.com/virtex4.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
-30-
#0546
|
|