SAN JOSE, Calif., October 12, 1998–Xilinx Inc., (NASDAQ:XLNX) announced today seven new AllianceCORE products available immediately from Xilinx AllianceCORE partner CAST, Inc. These products include serial communications and microprocessor peripheral cores. They are often used in PC and embedded applications such as medical instrumentation, industrial control, aerospace, defense, and communications systems. 

"These new cores AllianceCORE products are significant because they are functional replacements for common functions, many of which are no longer available as discrete solutions," said Newton Abdalla, president of CAST, Inc. "They constitute the beginning of an embedded systems design kit, providing essential building blocks in a proven, easy-to-reuse form." 

The cores that are now available from CAST for use in Xilinx programmable logic are: 

• C16450 UART
• C16550 UART with FIFOs
• C_UART Compact UART
• C6850 Asynchronous Communications Interface Adapter (ACIA)
• C8255A Peripheral Interface
• C8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller
• C2901 Bit Slice unit

These cores are also among the first to support the new Xilinx SpartanXL FPGA and XC9500XL CPLD 3.3-volt families. They can be very cost effective when integrated with additional logic in one of the new recently announced SpartanXL devices. For example, the CAST's compact UART core only takes seven percent of the logic cells of an XCS30XL device, making that the effective cost of that core cost in programmable silicon only $0.46. The added cost of the core license fee amortized in high volume applications is negligible, as shown in the table below for all of the new CAST cores. 
 

Cast core	Percentage of XCS30XL used ($6.95 US direct pricing in mid-99 for 100,000 units)	Effective cost of core in silicon	CAST license fee (Xilinx-only netlist - Charged by CAST)	Total cost per device (effective silicon cost + amortized license fee)
C_UART	7%	$0.46	$1500	$0.48
C2901	13%	$0.93	$3000	$0.94
C16450	27%	$1.89	$5000	$1.94
C16550	86%	$5.95	$6250	$6.01
C8255A	13%	$0.93	$4500	$0.98
C8259A	30%	$2.08	$8500	$2.17
C6850	15%	$1.04	$3000	$1.07

 

All cores support the Xilinx XC4000XL and Spartan FPGA families. The C_UART, C6850, C8255A, and C16450 cores also support the XC9500 and new XC9500XL CPLD families. License fees for the Xilinx netlist versions of each core range from $1,500 to $8,500. CAST can also provide source code versions at additional cost. 

CAST develops and markets synthesizable cores and simulation models for HDL design. The company is a member of the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA) and of the Xilinx AllianceCORE programs. CAST is located at 24 White Birch Drive, Pomona, NY 10970. Phone: 914/354-4945, fax: 914/354-0325, e-mail: info@cast-inc.com, Web: www.cast-inc.com. 

Xilinx is the leading innovator of complete programmable logic solutions, including advanced integrated circuits, software design tools, predefined system functions delivered as cores, and unparalleled field engineering support. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Xilinx invented field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and commands more than half of the world market for these devices today. Xilinx solutions enable customers to significantly reduce the time required to develop products for the computer, peripheral, telecommunication, networking, industrial control, instrumentation, high-reliability/military, and consumer markets. For more information, visit the Xilinx website at www.xilinx.com.