San Jose, Calif., March 9, 1999—Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX), today announced that shipments of its popular Foundation Express software, introduced just over two years ago, surpassed the 10,000th system in February. Foundation Express software combines state-of-the-art synthesis technology from Synopsys with the Xilinx advanced internet-enabled FPGA placement and routing software to deliver a complete, ready-to-use programmable logic design solution.
The majority of ASIC designers today use Synopsys design tools and an advanced HDL-based design methodology. Foundation Express software fully supports Virtex devices, new Xilinx high-density, high-performance FPGAs, today. This solution, which has been shipping for several months, provides advanced HDL design methodology support and fast timing-driven placement and routing for FPGAs with densities up to one million gates. Compatibility with Synopsys' Design Compiler and FPGA Compiler II products for ASIC design has resulted in a number of new Virtex designs that, without this solution, would have been targeted at ASIC devices.
"Our strategic partnership with Synopsys, initiated five years ago as part of a technology development agreement, is now paying dividends for the many ASIC designers turning to our Virtex FPGAs," said Rich Sevcik, senior vice president, software, cores, and support. "Our joint research and development has yielded very high quality results for the Virtex architecture without requiring ASIC designers to leave their familiar Synopsys design environment."
Foundation Express software includes Synopsys' FPGA Express synthesis technology. This technology was introduced in 1995 initially supporting Xilinx exclusively, and today features architecture-specific optimization for the Xilinx Virtex and XC4000X FPGA families, as well as the popular Xilinx XC9500 CPLD family. Moreover, all existing Synopsys FPGA Compiler customers have received an upgrade to FPGA Compiler II, ensuring complete Xilinx solutions for all Synopsys customers.
"As more of our customers are moving to new FPGA technologies such as the Xilinx Virtex series, our strategic effort to address their methodology and flow requirements has become just as important as our technology," said Jay Michlin, vice president and general manager of Synopsys FPGA Division. "Synopsys and Xilinx are being recognized as an attractive choice that can provide critical solutions today."
FPGA Express/Compiler II and Design Compiler all have scripting and
shell support in the current releases. FPGA Express/FPGA Compiler II will
share many of the scripting commands with Design Compiler, allowing ASIC
users to reuse most of their design scripts when targeting FPGAs. In addition,
to support the many ASIC designers who are taking advantage of Virtex FPGAs,
Xilinx has published an ASIC Migration Methodology note to answer the ASIC
designers' questions about migrating to FPGAs. This note can be found on
the Xilinx support web site, support.xilinx.com
,
in the application notes at http://www.xilinx.com/xapp/xapp119.pdf.
"More of our major accounts are moving to Virtex FPGAs and the importance of our strategic partner selling efforts has become just as vital as our technology," said Steve Haynes, vice president Xilinx Sales.
Xilinx provides the most complete integration of intellectual property cores, including complete DesignWare libraries for Virtex, XC4000X, and XC9500 families. In addition, Xilinx and Synopsys have collaborated to directly generate building block core elements during synthesis, rather than requiring manual instantiation or component inferencing. This technology, included in Foundation Express, speeds synthesis time and improves quality of results by enabling the synthesis tool to consider module timing during HDL synthesis.
Xilinx and Synopsys provide complete design solutions on both PC and UNIX platforms today. For its traditional FPGA customers, Xilinx directly licenses and sells a fully integrated version of FPGA Express technology as part of its Foundation Series software. Xilinx exclusively licenses technology enabling high-density support in Foundation Express software. For Design Compiler users, Xilinx offers complete optimization and DesignWare libraries for all of its leading architectures. Customers requiring the highest quality of results and compatibility between ASIC and FPGA design flows may choose FPGA Compiler II, currently available only on UNIX.
Founded in 1984, Xilinx is the world's largest supplier of programmable logic solutions comprising industry leading device architectures and world-class design software. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the company pioneered the market for field programmable gate array (FPGA) semiconductor devices that provide high integration and quick time-to-market for electronic equipment manufacturers in the computer, peripherals, telecommunications, networking, industrial control, instrumentation consumer, and high-reliability/military markets. For more information on Xilinx, access the World Wide Web at www.xilinx.com.
Xilinx is a registered trademark of Xilinx, Inc. Foundation,
Foundation Express, Virtex, and all XC-prefix names are trademarks of Xilinx,
Inc. Other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective owners.
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