Maria Quillard
(408) 879-4988

XILINX'S FOURTH QUARTER REVENUES UP 12% SEQUENTIALLY

SAN JOSE, CA, APRIL 24, 1997 -- Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) today announced record revenues for the fiscal year ended March 29, 1997.

Fiscal 1997 revenue totaled $568.1 million, up from $560.8 million for fiscal 1996. Net income was $110.4 million, or $1.39 per share, up from $101.5 million or $1.28 per share in fiscal 1996.

Fourth quarter revenue was a record $151.8 million, up 11.9% from $135.6 million for the prior quarter. A record 93% of these revenues was derived from proprietary products. Net income for the fourth quarter was $30.4 million or $0.38 per share, an increase of 16.1% over $26.2 million or $0.33 per share for the prior quarter.

"The March quarter was remarkable on many fronts", remarked Wim Roelandts, Xilinx's chief executive officer. "In addition to achieving record revenue, we sold approximately 1700 new software seats--an all-time high. This is a strong testimonial to the wide customer acceptance of our easy-to-use Foundation software series, which comprised over 69% of total units sold."

Fourth Quarter Review

While revenue strength for the fourth quarter was strong across all product lines, the flagship XC4000 family was particularly strong, increasing over 24% sequentially. The new XC4000X family introduced last quarter contributed over $3 million. This family includes the largest and fastest FPGAs on the market today.

Despite the recent weakness in the networking industry, Xilinx sales to networking companies in North America increased 37% during the fourth quarter and accounted for 14% of total North American sales. Fourth quarter North American sales to other major end markets were as follows: communications, 34%; dataprocessing, 32%; industrial/instrumentation, 14%; military, 4%; and miscellaneous, 2%.

Geographically, both US distribution and US direct sales were strong during the fourth quarter, constituting 64% of total sales. Europe accounted for 22% of sales in the fourth quarter and was up nearly 17% sequentially. Asia and the rest of the world represented 5% of total sales, up 20% sequentially. Japan, which was seasonally weak and adversely impacted by the weakening yen, was down nearly 11% sequentially and accounted for 9% of total revenues.

Fiscal Year 1997 - Key Accomplishments

Reaffirmed high-density leadership. The XC4062XL part, which began sampling in the last fiscal quarter, is manufactured using 0.35 micron technology and has 5,472 logic cells --10% more logic capacity than any competing device. During the June quarter, Xilinx expects to sample the XC4085XL part.* This part contains 7,448 logic cells and is also manufactured using 0.35 micron technology.

• Began shipping the industry's lowest-price CPLD family. The XC9500 CPLD family is the industry's only flash-based, in-system programmable (ISP) device. The XC9500 family is the industry's price leader, and has the industry's best pin-locking. Unit sales of Xilinx CPLDs were up 61% during the fourth quarter.
• Developed voltage migration path for high performance FPGAs. As Xilinx aggressively moves below 0.5 micron technology to increase FPGA performance, each new process technology requires a lower voltage. Xilinx is the only PLD supplier with pin-compatibility between different FPGA families today and it will extend that pin-compatibility to different voltages also. Xilinx was the first to introduce the 3.3V XC4000XL family that also supports 5V.
• Created more powerful software solutions. The Foundation software, introduced nearly one year ago, has enabled Xilinx to supply a low cost, easy-to-use software solution-for the first time. This software package was instrumental in helping Xilinx to reach an industry milestone: During the fourth quarter, Xilinx shipped its 35,000^th software design system-more than any other PLD company. In late fiscal 1997, Xilinx also began shipping its powerful new M1 core software technology.
• Continued penetration of gate array market. The XC5200 family, which is cost-optimized to attack the low end of the gate array market, represented approximately 7% of fiscal 1997 sales. Xilinx HardWire^TM devices, which provide customers with a no-risk conversion path to a masked gate array implementation for high volume production, accounted for approximately 5% of fiscal 1997 sales.
• Successfully introduced the Logicores^TM program. In fiscal 1997, Xilinx began shipping the industry's first PCI-Interface for FPGAs, the PCI LogiCore^TM. Xilinx LogiCore^TM solutions are high-level functions that a designer can integrate into FPGA designs. These solutions help system designers meet the need for faster time-to-market by dramatically cutting development time and design risk. Xilinx is the only PLD company to fully guarantee the quality and performance of their cores. In fiscal 1997, Xilinx sold over 200 PCI LogiCores^TM-more than any other vendor in the industry.

Looking ahead, Roelandts commented, "Fiscal 1998 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Xilinx. Our density and performance leadership coupled with our leading edge software fortifies our position as the premier PLD company. As we continue to engineer more comprehensive solutions for our customers, and aggressively converge upon the sweet spot of the gate array market, I am confident in our opportunities for future growth."*

Copies of financial literature, including this release, are available via fax or voice recording by dialing Xilinx's shareholder service line at 1-800-836-4002. Investor information is also available on the Investor Relations World Wide Web site at: http://www.xilinx.com/finance/irpage.com.

Founded in 1984, Xilinx is the world's largest supplier of programmable logic solutions comprising industry leading device architectures and world class design software. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the company pioneered the market for field programmable gate array (FPGA) semiconductor devices that provide high integration and quick time-to-market for electronic equipment manufacturers in the computer, peripherals, telecommunications, networking, industrial control, consumer, instrumentation, and high-reliability/military markets.
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For more information on Xilinx, access our World Wide Web site at http://www.xilinx.com. Xilinx is a registered trademark of Xilinx, Inc. All XC-prefix product designations, Select-RAM, HardWire and XACTstep are trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. Other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

*These are forward looking statements involving risks and uncertainties including: timely availability and acceptance of new products, the lack of visibility into our customers' programmable logic inventory levels, dependence on third party wafer suppliers, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the growth of the programmable logic market, and other risks that are described in the company's SEC filings, including the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 28, 1996.

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Summary Consolidated Financial Statements (Thousands except per share amounts)

(1) The results for the twelve month period ended March 29, 1997 include a $5.0 million write-off of the Company's XC8100 product family. Excluding the impact of the XC8100 write-off, operating income, net income and net income per share were $164.1 million, $113.7 million and $1.43 respectively for the twelve month period ended March 29, 1997.

(2) The results for the twelve month period ended March 30, 1996 include a $19.4 million write-off in-process technology relating to the purchase of NeoCAD, Inc. Excluding the impact of the write-off of in-process technology, income before taxes, net income and net income per share were $190.3 million, $120.8 million and $1.53 respectively for the twelve month period ended March 30, 1996