SAN JOSE, Calif.—November 6, 2000—Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) announced today its Platform FPGA initiative, a vision for the future of high performance programmable logic solutions. Together with the industry leaders from the processor, electronic design automation (EDA), real time operating systems (RTOS), and digital signal processing (DSP) tools industries, Xilinx announced strategic alliances to deliver Platform FPGAs that will serve as an indispensable part of digital electronic systems. The first embodiment of the Platform FPGA initiative will be the XilinxÒ VirtexÒ-II architecture, with delivery expected by the end of 2000.

The Platform FPGA initiative offers highly flexible time-to-market solutions for embedded systems including Empower!^TM processing solutions, XtremeDSP^TM solutions and SystemIO^TM interfaces. The broad industry alliances between Xilinx and IBM (NYSE: IBM), Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ: MENT), Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS), Wind River Systems (NASDAQ: WIND), and The MathWorks Inc. will allow Xilinx to deliver complete development environments including those for co-design and co-verification of these system-level designs.

"The Platform FPGA from Xilinx, in the form of its Empower!, XtremeDSP and SystemIO enhancements, represents the cutting edge of a long-awaited revolution in system design," stated Steve Leibson, Chief Analyst and Editor in Chief, Microprocessor Report. "FPGAs with embedded processors, DSP functions and gigabit I/Os allow many more systems developers to exploit the higher integration levels formerly achieved only through the use of ASICs, but with virtually no non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs."

Use models for Platform FPGAs

The information era represented by Internet, wireless, global and personal communications is challenging equipment manufacturers to increase data rates and the number of channels within standard communications systems to support streaming video, audio and data. Platform FPGAs offer manufacturers of these systems flexibility, time-to-market, and support for high bandwidth requirements. Platform FPGAs provide embedded processors for system control; DSP cores for customized data filtering and parallel processing to maximize bandwidth; and 3.125 gigabit serial and high bandwidth source-synchronous I/O ports for high-speed data communication throughout the system. The new Virtex-II devices and their successors will provide these Platform FPGA technologies. 

"Our Platform FPGA initiative not only encompasses highly integrated embedded solutions, but also delivers the high bandwidth interfaces required to connect FPGAs to other key components in emerging communications systems,” said Wim Roelandts, Xilinx president and CEO. “The strategic alliances we've made with industry leading companies this year are critical to the success of our Platform FPGA initiative and the delivery of a complete development environment for high performance embedded solutions."

Defining Platform FPGAs

The Platform FPGA represents a flexible solution that integrates a wide variety of hard and soft intellectual property (IP) cores on a single device whose hardware and firmware can be upgraded at any time. The programmability of the architecture reduces system development time yet enables a single Platform FPGA to be targeted at multiple applications. This programmability also enables designers to optimize systems throughout the development cycle and offers unprecedented co-design flexibility for trading-off hardware and software design implementations.

Two key Xilinx innovations in the Virtex-II architecture enable the Platform FPGA: IP Immersion^TM and Active Interconnect^TM technologies act as the foundation of this platform. These technologies represent a revolutionary step in programmable logic by enabling high performance IP cores to be embedded as hardwired functions within the architecture or to be programmed within the logic and memory array. The IP Immersion technology enables hard IP cores to be diffused at any coordinate within the Platform FPGA fabric while maintaining unprecedented connectivity with the surrounding array. The Active Interconnect technology offers actively-driven routing channels that ensure hard and soft IP cores maintain predictable, very high performance rates independent of their location within the array. 

The Empower! Processing Solution

The Xilinx Empower! processing solution for Platform FPGAs offers the highest performance programmable system for embedded processors while providing the freedom to choose a custom solution. Embedded PowerPC^TM 405 microprocessor cores from IBM will operate at 300 MHz to offer over 420 Dhrystone MIPs of performance, more than twice that of proposed competitive programmable solutions. The PowerPC 405 core has over six gigabytes peak communications bandwidth with the FPGA fabric. Additionally, embedded soft processor cores and high performance external interfaces ensure that designers can implement a wide variety of custom solutions, including interfaces to IBM, Intel, ARM, MIPS, and Motorola processors. This enables designers to have complete control over their performance, power, cost, and design environment criteria.

Through its partnerships with Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, and Wind River Systems Xilinx is developing a highly productive embedded design environment. Combining Wind River Systems' tools and RTOS with Platform FPGAs enables architects to create embedded applications for telecom, datacom, and consumer marketplaces. Development activities with Synopsys and Mentor Graphics will provide a complete solution for the co-design and co-verification challenges of embedded architectures.

The XtremeDSP Solution

For high performance DSP applications, the Xilinx XtremeDSP solutions will support over 600 billion multiply accumulate cycles (MACs)/sec, more than 100 times faster than the industry’s leading embedded DSP processor core. The Virtex-II architecture includes fully distributed registers and RAM for efficient FIR filters, up to 3.5 Mbits embedded dual-port RAM for data buffering and embedded 18x18 multipliers for high performance MAC functions. The Xilinx partnership with The MathWorks, Inc. has resulted in a complete design environment based on the MatLab toolkit and addresses emerging co-design requirements for DSP development. Xilinx will announce further details of the XtremeDSP solution in the coming months.

SystemIO Interfaces

In an effort to make Xilinx Platform FPGAs capable of the fastest communications possible with other system components, Xilinx announced its leadership position in system interfaces earlier this year. In September, Xilinx announced its roadmap for supporting ultra-fast serial I/O technologies. And in October, Xilinx announced its acquisition of RocketChips, Inc., a developer of multi-gigabit serial transceivers. The Xilinx SystemIO interfaces will offer the most flexible solution for bridging emerging interface standards, including compliance with RapidIO^TM, Lightning Data Transport^TM (LDT), SPI4, PCI66 and PCI-X133 parallel bus interfaces. Xilinx has also aligned with AMCC and PMC Sierra to offer compliance with their FlexBus4 and POS-PHY4 parallel bus standards, respectively. All Platform FPGA SystemIO interfaces will also support leading memory, clocking and backplane standards, including SSTL, HSTL, GTL+, BusLVDS and 832 Mb/sec LVDS and LVPECL signaling. 

RocketIO^TM gigabit serial interfaces will deliver unprecedented bandwidth for networking and communications systems for Platform FPGAs. Embedded 3.125Gbps SkyRail^TM CMOS serial transceivers licensed from Conexant Systems, Inc. will support 10 Gbit Ethernet, OC-192, Infiniband^TM and XAUI interface standards. 

About Xilinx

Xilinx is the leading supplier 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 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, aerospace, defense, and consumer markets. For more information, visit the Xilinx web site at www.xilinx.com.

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