SAN JOSE, Calif., April 13, 1998—In a move to further establish its leadership in FPGA-based high performance DSP applications, Xilinx, Inc., (NASDAQ:XLNX), today announced "Xilinx DSP," a fully integrated, easy to use, low cost DSP design environment. Xilinx DSP reduces time to market by eliminating several stages of the DSP design process. Moreover, Xilinx DSP reduces cost by allowing a single FPGA device to work in conjunction with a general purpose DSP processor and handle the additional workload should the system require multiple DSP processors to achieve overall performance requirements. 

Xilinx DSP consists of the XC4000X and Spartan series of FPGA devices, a wide range of DSP cores, the CORE Generator software integrated with system level modeling and simulation tools such as SystemView from Elanix, and prototyping systems such as the GVA-200 DSP Hardware Accelerator from GV and Associates. 

"Xilinx DSP provides designers of high performance digital communications and image processing equipment with a lower cost, easier to use alternative to multiprocessor DSP solutions," said Rich Sevcik, senior vice president of software at Xilinx. "Xilinx DSP also provides the time-to-market advantage of FPGA technology and provides a robust environment that appeals to both experienced and new DSP designers." 

DSP CORES based on Smart-IP Technology 

Xilinx DSP currently supports more than 20 DSP LogiCORE modules, including filters, correlators, transforms, integrators, sine/cosine building blocks, math functions and memories. DSP LogiCORE functions can be used with standard hardware design environments such as VHDL, Verilog or schematic capture. 

"Last month we introduced the CORE Generator tool and Smart-IP technology as the most powerful method of developing and delivering high performance, highly predictable and flexible cores," said Babak Hedayati, program director of Xilinx Core Solutions marketing. "In only a short while we were able to demonstrate the application of such a powerful technology to a vertical market such as DSP by quickly integrating system-level tools, generating more DSP functions with Smart IP technology, and combining this methodology with Xilinx FPGAs to deliver a complete solution for the DSP market." 

SystemLINX and Elanix 

The CORE Generator software is an advanced tool for PCs and workstations that allows designers to specify their own unique core parameters. After specifications are chosen, the CORE Generator software produces the best physical layout and delivers it as a LogiCORE function that can be implemented in a Xilinx FPGA device. 

An additional feature of the CORE Generator, SystemLINX, provides an interface to third party tools. SystemView by Elanix is the first third party DSP system level tool to be supported by Xilinx DSP. This tight integration allows designers to target FPGA devices from familiar environments. SystemView by Elanix, which operates in Windows and Windows NT environments, includes tokens that match the Xilinx DSP LogiCORE functions. 

Designers can build models of their system quickly in SystemView, run simulations, then change parameter values to see how these affect system behavior and performance, enabling them to quickly determine the optimal design. Once a design is optimized, designers can invoke the CORE Generator tool through SystemView, automatically pass down core selections and parameters and output netlists for placement in Xilinx FPGA devices. 

"Xilinx DSP offers incredible performance at less than the cost of existing solutions," said Dr. Patrick Ready, president and CEO of Elanix. "The partnership of Elanix and Xilinx provides an easy to use, intuitive, low-cost solution which fits the design methodology that DSP designers have come to expect from Xilinx." 

Xilinx DSP achieves high performance through the use of innovative algorithms that are efficiently implemented in Xilinx FPGAs. Many operations are performed in parallel using structures that take advantage of Xilinx FPGA look-up tables and distributed memory. Using this approach, data sample rates can exceed 100 million samples per second, with performance ratings measured in billions of multiply accumulates (MACs) per second. And because performance automatically scales with the size of a Xilinx FPGA device, designers can increase parallel processing by moving to a larger part. 

A prototyping platform, the GVA–200 DSP Hardware Accelerator, is available from GV and Associates of Ramona, Calif. The GVA-200 is used to prototype DSP algorithms in Xilinx FPGAs, including the new Spartan series. 

Price and availability 

The Xilinx CORE Generator tool and DSP LogiCORE functions are available now at no charge to DSP designers. SystemView by Elanix with the Xilinx DSP support is available now starting at $2,495 from Elanix, Inc., of Westlake Village, Calif. List pricing for GVA-200 DSP Hardware Accelerator system starts at $1,950 in single unit quantities. 

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.