FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

XILINX ANNOUNCES DSP ALGORITHMS, TOOLS AND FEATURES FOR VIRTEX-II ARCHITECTURE

Part of Xilinx XtremeDSP initiative to deliver 600 billion MACs per second DSP performance

SAN JOSE, Calif., November 21, 2000— Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) the leader in programmable logic solutions, today announced the immediate availability of eleven new pre-engineered DSP algorithms, licensed as LogiCOREä products, new DSP tools, plus several new embedded DSP features for its next generation Virtexä -II architecture. The new products are a result of the company-wide XtremeDSPä initiative, which addresses the accelerating need for high-performance DSP solutions needed for the creation of a broadband infrastructure. For more information, see related press release dated November 21, 2000.

"When designing for the emerging broadband and wireless communication standards, flexibility and time to market are of the essence. That's why Xilinx FPGAs have been so successful in these markets," said Babak Hedayati, director of marketing and business development of the IP Solutions Division at Xilinx. "The new Virtex-II architecture when combine with our new tools and LogiCORE DSP algorithms will give our customers the necessary performance and flexibility to successfully develop for new emerging broadband markets such as 4G wireless systems, and voice and video over IP (VoIP)."

New Pre-Engineered DSP Algorithms

To accelerate DSP customers' time-to-market, Xilinx continuously develops pre-engineered DSP algorithms, also known as cores. Eleven new LogiCORE DSP algorithms were released today for implementing data communication and image processing applications. One of the new LogiCORE products is a new filter generator, integrated with MATLAB from The MathWorksâ . The new filter generator allows customers to design sophisticated filter algorithms using industry standard tools, and to automatically generate an optimized implementation for Xilinx FPGAs. Other LogiCORE products released today are a multipliers generator, a parameterized MAC (Multiply Accumulate), DCT/iDCT, three G.711 PCM Codec cores, and four color space converters.

New DSP Design Tools

Xilinx recently released the System Generator tool for Simulink®, which is first in a series of tools that will assist the DSP designer. Announced today is the early release program of XPower™, a new interactive tool that allows designers to analyze the power effects of design trade offs during the design cycle. Designers of power critical DSP devices, such as hand-held portable and large-scale applications, can now accurately estimate chip power consumption. By utilizing internal device characterization data, XPower provides a more accurate estimation than typical static power calculation forms offered by most PLD vendors. Future releases of XPower will also offer HDL simulation data to further improve accuracy.

Xilinx also announced today DSP enhancements for its ChipScope ILA™ tool that allows real-time access to any node in the FPGA with an easy-to-use graphical interface. The new DSP enhancements will provide designers with the ability to plot real digital signals on the chip in two-dimensional diagrams. This capability is extremely important with today's complex devices and leadless packaging.

New DSP Features in Virtex-II

The Virtex-II architecture will include a number of new features aimed at removing bottlenecks in a high-performance DSP system. These features will include up to 192 dedicated high-speed multipliers and True Dual-Portä Block RAM extended up to 3.5 Megabit in a single FPGA. The Virtex-II multipliers will support up to 18-bit signed or up to 17-bit unsigned representation and can be cascaded to support bigger numbers. They are fully combinatorial running between 140 and 250 MHz depending on bit width. Designers can use up to 192 multipliers to implement an array of 18 x 18 MAC modules, or use each multiplier primitive to implement two smaller multipliers forming up to 384 MAC units on a single FPGA. The MAC is a fundamental DSP building block. In comparison, traditional DSP solutions typically support up to four MACs on a single chip.

"The new Virtex-II features combined with pre-engineered high-performance DSP algorithms and new DSP tools will make the Virtex-II architecture an ideal platform for high-performance DSP designs." said Chris Dick, Xilinx chief DSP architect. "Designers can use Virtex-II devices to implement critical DSP elements of emerging broadband systems such as sub-1-microsecond 1024 point FFTs, hyper-fast adaptive filters, 3G turbo coder, rake receivers, and spread spectrum."

License price and availability

Software support for Xilinx Virtex-II family is available with the company’s November 2000 software release. The new LogiCORE DSP products and prices are listed in the table below. Datasheets can be downloaded from the Xilinx IP-Center at www.xilinx.com/ipcenter.

Product

Application

Part Number

Price

Filter Generator

General DSP

Included with Xilinx SW tools

-

Multiplier Generator

General DSP

Included with Xilinx SW tools

-

Parameterized MAC

General DSP

Included with Xilinx SW tools

-

DCT, iDCT

Image Processing

DO-DI-FIDCT

$15,000

G.711 PCM Codec

Speech Compression/Expansion

DO-DI-G711

$7,200

G.711 PCM Compressor

Same as above

DO-DI-G711C

$4,000

G.711 PCM Expander

Same as above

DO-DI-G711E

$4,000

Color Space Converter - RGB2YCrCb

Image Processing

DO-DI-RGB2YCRCB

$1,000

Color Space Converter - YCrCb2RGB

Image Processing

DO-DI-YCRCB2RGB

$1,000

Color Space Converter - RGB2YUV

Image Processing

DO-DI-RGB2YUV

$1,000

Color Space Converter - YUV2RGB

Image Processing

DO-DI-YUV2RGB

$1,000

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 http://www.xilinx.com.

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Editorial Contact: Product Marketing Contact:
Jennifer Wright Per Holmberg
Xilinx, Inc. Xilinx, Inc.
(408) 879-7727 (408) 879-5318
jennifer.wright@xilinx.com per.holmberg@xilinx.com