SAN JOSE, Calif. -- February 9, 1999 -- The new Virtex field programmable gate array (FPGA) from Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX) is enabling Performance Technologies (NASDAQ:PTIX), a leading supplier of high availability networking switching solutions, to add Gigabit functionality to PTI's Nebula family of high performance, fault tolerant Ethernet switching products.  The Xilinx Virtex XCV1000 device is a million-gate FPGA which provides a significant portion of the functionality required to build a two-port wire speed Gigabit switch that interfaces to Pulsar, PTI's proven ASIC-based switching fabric.

PTI's Ethernet switch family includes the industry's first truly fault tolerant backbone switch, the 32 port Nebula 8000 switch, which uses unique mirroring techniques and a sophisticated failover architecture. Other models in the family include the Nebula 4000 16-port Workgroup Switch, and the Nebula 6000 64-port High Density Departmental Switch. All switch models include features such as hot swappable load sharing power supplies, port trunking, embedded HTTP server for network management, sophisticated VLANs, Quality of Service support, advanced security/filtering, high-speed WAN access, industry standard WAN and LAN interfaces and the standard full-duplex Gigabit uplink ports using the Virtex XCV1000 FPGA. 

PTI's Nebula 8000 Fault Tolerant Switch is particularly unique in its class and is ideally suited for mission critical "round-the-clock" applications environments such as banking, brokerage, medical, government, transaction processing or other business/mission critical applications.

The Virtex family comprises the industry's first FPGAs that address system-level design issues.  The Virtex devices offer a robust feature set with densities ranging from 50,000 to one million system gates.  The million-gate Virtex FPGAs -- an industry first at this density -- and other Virtex family members are available now.

 "We did an exhaustive search and found that only the Xilinx Virtex FPGAs could provide us with the performance and density necessary to add Gigabit capability to the Nebula switch family," said John Peters, vice president of development at Performance Technologies.  "We were very impressed with the system level capabilities of the Virtex FPGAs, particularly the digital delay locked loops and support for multiple I/O standards."

About Performance Technologies
Performance Technologies is a world class supplier of leading-edge, high availability network switching and data communication solutions.  The company's products include a wide range of fault tolerant Fast Ethernet switching products for business and mission critical network environments, intelligent LAN/WAN communications controllers for high performance workstations and servers, and network interface cards for mass storage devices.

Performance Technologies targets the financial services, telecommunications, information processing and defense industries.  PTI is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ:PTIX).  Visit the PTI web site at www.pt.com or switching web site at www.gigabit.com.

About Xilinx
Xilinx is the leading innovator of compete 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 word 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, and Virtex and all XC-prefix product designations are trademarks of Xilinx, Inc.  Performance Technologies is a registered trademark, and Nebula and Pulsar are trademarks of Performance Technologies, Inc. Other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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Editorial contact:
Mike Seither	Donald H. Stothard
Xilinx, Inc.	Performance Technologies, Inc
(408) 879-6557	(716) 256-0200 ext. 299
mike.seither@xilinx.com	dhs@pt.com