SAN JOSE, Calif., June 27, 2000—Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), the leader in programmable logic solutions, today announced that Lucent Technologies has chosen Xilinx® Virtex^TM FPGAs for their next generation routing switch. The choice proved to be a formidable time-saver because when Lucent engineers set out to design the next generation Cajun TM P880^TM routing switch, they determined that a traditional ASIC design would require too much time in the extremely aggressive development schedule.

"We originally designed the P880 with an ASIC at the heart of the switching fabric," said Brian Ramelson, system architect at Lucent. "We soon realized that if we stuck with an ASIC design, the product would be late to market. At the time we were skeptical that any FPGA could implement these functions. We decided to try Xilinx FPGAs for this project as a test case for future designs."

Ramelson's team selected the Virtex XCV150^TM, with 150,000 system gates, and XCV800^TM, with 800,000 system gates, FPGAs to supply the functions they needed. The new, high-end 17-slot Cajun P880 complements the seven-slot Cajun P550® Gigabit Switch and the two share a common architecture. The P880 chassis can use any of the company's existing 50-Series modules for Ethernet (10 megabits per second), Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps), or Gigabit Ethernet (1,000 Mbps) connectivity. This provides network managers with an obvious migration path. By the summer of 2000, new ultra-high-performance 80-Series modules are scheduled for availability and can be deployed beside the 50-Series boards in the same P880 chassis.

Because of the breadth of its capabilities, the Cajun P880 Routing Switch spans both the "internetwork" and "wiring-closet" market sectors. This makes the switch a potent competitor. But specs mean little unless you can deliver product on time and that was where Xilinx FPGAs entered the picture. "By going with Xilinx we were able to ship the P880 months earlier than we would have with a traditional ASIC design," concluded Ramelson.

Ramelson notes this was a far different experience from the last time he worked with an FPGA. "The element that best represents the success of this program was how fast we were able to complete the design. End-to-end the design process was completed within six weeks and we had a working model in about a month."

About the Cajun P880 Routing Switch

The P880's backplane scales upward from 56 gigabits per second to 139 (Gbps) providing the P880 with the capability of switching or routing from 41 to 106 million packets per second. Designed with no single point of failure, the highly reliable Cajun P880 supports up to 768 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports, up to 384 fiber Fast Ethernet ports and up to 128 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a fault-tolerant, modular chassis.

The P880's switching fabric consists of six switch elements, each using two Xilinx XCV150 devices for a total of 12 per chassis. The controller used a single XCV800 device. The design allows for high redundancy to maximize reliability. A second backup controller is optional with the P880, while a seventh switch element can be added for redundancy. Ramelson estimates a typical place and route for the controller took just about two hours.

More information on the Cajun P880 can be found at http://www.lucent.com/ins/products/p880

About the Xilinx Virtex Series

The Virtex series devices range from 50,000 to 1,000,000 system gates at clock speeds up to 200 MHz and include many new features that address system-level design challenges. Fully supported by the Xilinx software, the Virtex family offers a complete solution for Lucent, ready to meet the design challenges for their groundbreaking product.

About Xilinx

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, California, 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, high-reliability/military, and consumer markets. For more information, visit the Xilinx web site at www.xilinx.com.