FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

XILINX NEW GENERATION OF ADVANCED PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS ACCELERATES THE DESIGN OF TEN MILLION GATE FPGAS

Xilinx Foundation SeriesTM software is first complete design solution 
to include incremental synthesis 

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 30, 2000—Xilinx Inc., (NASDAQ: XLNX) today announced the release of its new generation design environment, the XilinxÒFoundation Integrated Synthesis EnvironmentTM (Foundation ISETM). As with all Foundation Series software, Foundation ISE includes Xilinx implementation tools which deliver unequaled productivity for designs up to ten million gates with compilation times averaging two to five minutes for 100,000 system gates, and 30-45 minutes for one million gate FPGAs. In addition, the company announced the release of its next-generation Foundation Express software. Demonstrations of all products based on the new version 3.1i software will be at the Design Automation Conference in Xilinx booth #3629.

New Foundation ISE software

Foundation ISE software delivers a suite of design tools and features that dramatically improves the productivity of programmable logic designers. The Project Navigator flow manager automatically guides the designer through the simple push button flow to implement 100,000 gate designs in minutes. For more complex designs Project Navigator can automatically provide visibility to more sophisticated design flows. 

“FPGA designers require more productive design tools,” said Rich Sevcik, Xilinx senior vice president IP, Services and Software. "With our newest software release we deliver a complete set of tools integrated with our powerful industry leading place and route technology, yielding substantial time to market advantages for our customers."

Xilinx and Synopsys announced in April the availability of the Xilinx exclusive version of FPGA ExpressTM 3.4, which includes Block Level Incremental Synthesis (BLISTM). BLIS is available exclusively to all Foundation Series customers. Xilinx high-level floorplanning capability, coupled with BLIS, accelerates the process of incorporating design changes late in the design cycle, enabling fast design iterations and rapid convergence on timing requirements. 

The Project Navigator integrates with Synplicity's SynplifyÒ synthesis tool suite. Also Foundation ISE software will improve the designer's productivity with easy push-button access to Synplicity's fast compile speeds; this feature will be available in the Fall. This joint development between Xilinx and Synplicity is another example of the teamwork that delivered physical synthesis for Virtex devices in the AmplifyTM Physical OptimizerTM announced in April.

Foundation ISE software also delivers a variety of other design tools that have been custom designed for the Xilinx ISE environment and deliver the benefits of HDL design productivity to Xilinx customers. These products, offered as part of the Xilinx EDA ALLSTAR (ALLiance STARter) program, include Model Technology's ModelSimÒ Xilinx Edition Starter, and Visual Software Solutions StateCADÒ Xilinx Edition and HDL BencherTM Xilinx Edition. ModelSim XE Starter provides users of Foundation ISE software with an entry-level HDL simulation capability. StateCAD delivers powerful state diagram entry capabilities, while the HDL Bencher simplifies the creation of HDL testbenches for Xilinx designs.

New version of Foundation Express software

Xilinx also announced the next release of its Foundation Express design environment. The 3.1i version of Xilinx original Foundation Series product will be available starting in July. The 3.1i release of Foundation Express software includes Xilinx 3.1i implementation tools. The new Foundation Express design environment also includes updated versions of the schematic capture and gate-level simulator tools, with an emphasis on improved design flows and reliability. Foundation Express software also includes the 3.4 release of FPGA ExpressTM, and BLIS. 

Price, platform and availability

The Foundation ISE software provides architecture-specific device support for the following Xilinx product families: SpartanTM, Spartan-XL, Spartan-II, VirtexTM, Virtex-E, and Virtex-EM FPGAs, and XC9500TM CPLDs. The Foundation Series software is supported on Windows98, Windows 2000 and Windows NT; Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Windows. The Foundation ISE software will be available this summer with pricing starting at $1,690.

The Foundation Express software is supported on Windows 98 and Windows NT, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Windows platforms. The Foundation Express software is available in three density ranges: Base, Express and Elite. The "Base" version supports low density CPLD and FPGA design, the "Express" version provides support for designs up to and including one million gates, and the "Elite" version supports designs up to and including ten million gates. Foundation software prices start at $1,090 and will be available in July.
 

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 headquarters in San Jose, Calif., Xilinx invented field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and fulfills more than half of the world demand 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 web site at www.xilinx.com.

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Editorial contact: Product Marketing contact:
Ann Duft Bill Gregorak
Xilinx, Inc. Xilinx, Inc.
(408) 879-4726 (303) 544-5527
publicrelations@xilinx.com bill.gregorak@xilinx.com