SAN JOSE, Calif., March 6, 2000—Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) and Model Technology, a Mentor Graphics company (NASDAQ: MENT), today announced that the companies have expanded their relationship to offer enhancements to the popular XilinxÒ web-based, or WebPOWERED design tool suites. Xilinx will offer a custom version of Model Technology’s popular ModelSim hardware description language (HDL) simulator—ModelSim Xilinx Edition (XE) Starter—as one of its first enhancement modules, or backPACKs, to its WebPACK^TM downloadable CPLD design suite. By including ModelSim XE Starter, Xilinx offers their CPLD customers a complete, free, HDL design solution, downloadable from the web.

“Including ModelSim in the Xilinx WebPACK tool suite is great for our customers,” said John Lenyo, director of marketing at Model Technology. “As part of the WebPACK tools, ModelSim XE Starter provides CPLD designers with easy access to industry-standard HDL simulation tools while providing a clear upgrade path to advanced simulation products. By working together to leverage the Web, we are providing the power of HDL-based design to the expanding market of CPLD designers.”

Xilinx also announced the introduction of key feature enhancements to the WebFITTER^TM tool, the on-line CPLD design and evaluation system. The latest release of the WebFITTER tool now supports simple PLDs (16V8, 20V8, and 22V10). This capability allows designers of low density PALs to take advantage of Xilinx latest release of the ABEL PLD language, version 7.2, which now offers support of BUS declarations.

“We believe that the enhancements in ABEL v7.2, coupled with the inclusion of traditional PAL support, will continue to benefit the design engineering community,” said Evert Wolsheimer, vice president and general manager of the Xilinx CPLD division. “We want to extend the improvements that Xilinx has made to the traditional ABEL user base [simple PLDs]. Xilinx now offers designers the latest in both the ABEL language and provides the best selection in high performance/low power CPLDs.”

These new features are available this month in the next release of each of these packages.

Customers love it

Xilinx customers are endorsing a growing success of the WebPOWERED products with over 10,000 registrations in the past six months. Key to this wide acceptance by system designers is the fast, efficient compilation times for cost effective CPLD solutions.

“I needed a CPLD with lots of output enable signals. The other suppliers weren’t cutting it, so I went surfing on the Xilinx web site. In 15 minutes I knew that my VHDL design fit and the price for the XC95144XLTM-TQ144 device,” said D. Mark Durrett, founder and hardware design engineer at Tantara Networks, Inc., a communications equipment start up in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. 

“Xilinx paved the way for the first true on-line design environment for CPLDs and continues to innovate by providing the best and most complete CPLD product design for free via the Internet,” said Dave Grace, software marketing manager for Xilinx CPLD division. “We will continue to lead and expand the services of WebFITTER and the WebPACK tools to meet customer demands.”

Xilinx Design Tool Roadmap

Enhancements planned in the next quarter include new downloadable UNIX fitter modules for both the XC9500 and CoolRunner CPLD series and two new backPACKs: schematic capture and HDL test bench/state diagram tools. Xilinx expects to offer software version control for both the WebFITTER and WebPACK tools. Users will have the option of choosing a specific version of the software to process designs on the WebFITTER tool. The WebPACK tool will allow customers to download specific versions that can be maintained during the entire product design/production lifecycle—an essential capability for on-line CPLD design archives.

About Model Technology

Model Technology Incorporated, a Mentor Graphics company, is the industry’s leading supplier of HDL simulation tools. Model Technology provides ASIC and FPGA designers with the latest in simulation technology regardless of the language (VHDL, Verilog or mixed-HDL) or platform (Unix, Windows, Linux) used. With more than 40,000 licensed units sold worldwide, ModelSim is the most popular HDL simulator in the industry. Model Technology is headquartered in Portland, Ore., with 28 sales and distribution offices in the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Pacific Rim. For information on the nearest Model Technology representative or Model Technology products, call (503) 641-1340, email sales@model.com, or visit www.model.com.

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