SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 23, 1999—Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) and Dolphin Integration SA of Meylan, France, a Xilinx AllianceCORE partner, today announced, the immediate availability of the Flip-8051 core. The Flip-8051 is the industry's fastest implementation of the popular 8051 microcontroller optimized for the Virtex FPGA family. The core is aimed directly at embedded markets including automotive, industrial, medical equipment and consumer products. The companies made the announcement at the IP99 System-on-Chip Conference and Exhibition that opened here today. 

"The 8051 microprocessor has been a standard in the embedded industry for years," said Jean-François Pollet, manager of the Flip line of virtual components at Dolphin. "Since most legacy standard 8051 chips are obsolete, a programmable logic version allows companies to quickly reduce the cost or enhance the performance of their systems without rewriting legacy microcontroller code. Our solution, combined with the system-level capabilities of the Virtex FPGAs, paves the way for a rich family of microcontroller configurations for programmable logic-based system-on-chip solutions." 

Customers such as Plessis Electronics Ltd., Leighton Buzzard, U.K., a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, already are taking advantage of this system-on-chip capability. 

"We found the transition to the FPGA-based Flip-8051 core to be straightforward," said Serge Plessis of Plessis Electronics. "We estimate that we saved months using this core in the FPGA. The efficient architecture of the core provided us with much more performance than we needed, making design of the overall system very easy." 

High Performance Core Architecture 

The Flip-8051 core was optimized to execute multiple instructions in a single machine cycle. As a result, the average instruction is executed eight times faster than the legacy 8051 architecture. The current Virtex version of the core operates at a clock frequency of 29.8 MHz, yielding an instruction execution performance equivalent to a legacy 8051 processor operating at 238 MHz. This capability makes the core an ideal solution for low-power applications such as portable systems, sensors and smart-cards because legacy 8051 performance can be achieved at one-eighth the clock frequency. 

Pricing and Availability 

The Flip-8051 core forms the heart of a family of processors that include lower performance options as well as microcontroller configurations that include peripherals such as timers and serial interfaces. Pricing starts as low as $10,000 for an EDIF format for Virtex FPGAs. Other design file formats are available. A VHDL source-code version is available with a test bench at extra cost. 

In addition, Dolphin offers an FPGA-based board that allows customers to evaluate a hardware version of the core immediately. Dolphin also offers design services, annual maintenance agreements and technical support via fax (33 4 76 90 29 65) and email. Contact Dolphin Integration directly for more information. 

About Dolphin Integration  

Dolphin Integration is an IP provider that offers an array of design services and support that range from turnkey design to consulting for customers who want to efficiently integrate Flip cores into their system-on-chip designs. Dolphin's corporate charter is to help customers meet the challenges of time-to-market with a system-on-board or a system-on-chip design. Additional information is available on the web at www.dolphin.fr. 

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 commands more than half of the world market 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. 

Xilinx is a registered trademark. AllianceCORE and Virtex are trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. Other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. 

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Editorial Contact:	Product Marketing Contact:	AllianceCORE contact:
Mike Seither	Mark Bowlby	Jöel Beroud
Xilinx, Inc.	Xilinx, Inc.	Dolphin Integration
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