| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
XILINX AND ARC CORES ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE FOR CONFIGURABLE PROCESSOR
CORES AND WORLD WIDE NETWORK OF DESIGN CENTERS
SAN JOSE, Calif., -- July 3, 2000 – Xilinx,
Inc., (NASDAQ: XLNX) and ARC Cores,
of Elstree, England, today announced the immediate availability of the
ARC 32-bit configurable processor solution for use in the Xilinx® Virtex™
and Spartan-II™ series
FPGAs. Xilinx customers now have access to a high-performance, user-configurable
32-bit processor, or can purchase customized versions for specific applications
from a growing network of world-wide design centers.
"ARC Cores and Xilinx have invested considerable effort to create a
complete solution for customers of programmable logic," said Bob Terwilliger,
president and CEO of ARC Cores.
"The combination of the reconfigurability of the Xilinx FPGAs and the
configurability of our processor architecture creates a high-performance,
flexible, soft-processor solution. It is great to work with a partner who,
like ARC Cores, is actively delivering leading-edge products to the marketplace."
Configurable Processor Solution for the Programmable Market
In addition, ARC Cores and Xilinx have formed an alliance to offer
complete programmable logic–based solutions for users of ARC's configurable
32-bit processor core. A network of design centers will configure, optimize
and integrate the ARC processor for use in Xilinx FPGAs. Qualification
for this program will include joint certification by ARC and Xilinx of
consulting firms to receive ARC Certified Design Center (ACDC) and Xilinx
XPERTS™ third-party
consultant training. Qualifying ACDC firms will be able to deliver optimized
Xilinx netlist implementations of pre-configured ARC processors. The charter
members of this program are White Eagle Systems Technology, Inc. of San
Jose, CA, Fraunhofer Institute IIS of Erlangen, Germany, and Delta of Horsholm,
Denmark.
"Our alliance with ARC and the creation of a developer network marks
a significant development in the industry," said Rich Sevcik, senior vice
president of IP, services and support at Xilinx. "Time to market is critical
for many customers who often don't have the time or resources to develop
and debug their system-on-a-chip designs. What was previously only the
realm of the well-resourced custom-chip designer is now available to a
wider design community."
ARC Cores has also developed the ARCangel hardware prototyping development
system that includes a Virtex XCV1000-6 FPGA. The board allows ACDC members
and fully-licensed users to configure, test and iterate their ARC-based
designs in either a Virtex or Spartan-II FPGA before committing their systems
to board-level design. The reconfigurable nature of both the ARC processor
and the FPGA delivers flexibility for optimization that is unavailable
for hard-wired, processor-based solutions.
Advantages of the ARC Processor
The ARC processor stands apart from traditional RISC processors because
its instruction set can be configured to match the customer's exact requirements.
This makes it suitable for a wider range of applications than an external
or embedded fixed-instruction-set processor. The ARC tool set allows a
designer to customize the processor to achieve either greater system performance
or lower power at reduced clock frequencies, making it ideal as a soft,
FPGA-based solution.
For example, White Eagle Systems Technology designed a voice codec for
a GSM-based wireless communications system. The GSM-EFR codec algorithm
requires a clock speed of at least 115 MHz on a fixed instruction-set processor
in order to be compliant with GSM standards. After configuring the Virtex-based
ARC core to include specific instructions for the codec algorithm, White
Eagle was able to generate a solution that is fully compliant at 12 MHz,
and expects to be able to reduce that further with additional code optimization.
Other Virtex FPGA-based ARC solutions have been proven for DSP, Voice over
IP (VoIP), and MP3 applications.
Availability
Customers can purchase a full license for the ARC core that includes
the core configuration utilities, development tools and the ARCangel board
directly from ARC Cores. Users can also purchase optimized Xilinx netlists
for application specific configurations of the ARC cores from ACDC member
companies who can also integrate those into complete chip and board level
designs. Information on the ARC products is available now in the Xilinx
IP Center, the definitive web portal for programmable logic IP at www.xilinx.com/ipcenter.
About ARC Cores
ARC Cores (a trading name of ARC International Ltd.) is a leading designer
and developer of customizable, high-performance microprocessors and related
intellectual property solutions for integrating microprocessors with embedded
systems applications. The ARC processor is an application-specific processor
(ASP), which can be rapidly designed and configured using the ARChitect™,
for telecommunications, voice and data networking, and consumer electronics
products. The ARC processor can be continually tested and verified
at each stage of development, including pre- and post-fabrication, to ensure
that it is optimized and properly configured to satisfy each customer’s
requirements. The company’s website is located at www.arccores.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 website at www.xilinx.com.
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ARChitect is a trademark and ARC Cores is a registered
trademark of ARC International (UK) Ltd.
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