SAN JOSE, Calif., February 23, 1998—Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX), a leader in programmable logic, today announced delivery of the next version of its Foundation Series software, version 1.4. This release represents the broad distribution of Synopsys FPGA Express technology to Foundation Series customers with several new features and flow enhancements. Also announced are two new Foundation products: Foundation Base-Express and Foundation Express offerings. 

"Foundation Series software is the clearly preferred HDL solution in the programmable logic industry," said Rich Sevcik, Xilinx senior vice president software. "With the delivery of FPGA Express technology in this new release, our customers are achieving the highest device performance for increasingly complex designs." 

Integrated as part of the Foundation solution, Synopsys Express 2.0 technology contributes mixed VHDL and Verilog language support, new advanced synthesis optimization techniques, and improved quality of results in both timing and area optimization. Mixed language support provides new flexibility for ASIC designers who are leveraging previous Verilog and VHDL intellectual property for new programmable logic designs. Two advanced synthesis features such as area versus speed optimization and graphical constraint entry with timing estimation provide high-performance results. Improved quality of results translates into better silicon utilization for designers. 

"Synopsys and Xilinx have combined their expertise to deliver an industry leading programmable logic design solution," said Sanjiv Kaul, Synopsys' vice president of marketing. "More importantly, thousands of designers are seeing dramatic improvements in performance and productivity as a direct result of this cooperation to integrate synthesis and place and route technology and reduce overall design cycle time." 

A tightly integrated design solution, like Foundation Series 1.4 software, serves the time to market concerns of many high-volume users, who demand easy to use tools that support HDL-based methodologies. Spartan FPGAs and Foundation Series software provide everything needed to complete high volume applications quickly and easily, making a complete low-cost ASIC replacement solution. 

Also featured in the Foundation Series 1.4 software is the latest version of Xilinx implementation tools. These tools combine improved user controls, new system defaults, and improved place and route algorithms to deliver up to 85 percent faster runtimes on high-density designs. Additional place and route control adds flexibility in running the place and route engine for optimal results by allowing designers to control the effort level in each place and route. Through a simple interface, place and route effort can be set either to run for the shortest runtime or for the best performance. User requirements met at low effort levels result in minimal runtimes, while increased effort levels result in increased timing and utilization. 

Among the two new configurations, the Foundation Base-Express product offers faster and simpler design flows without sacrificing performance—ideal for Spartan FPGA applications. The Foundation Express product has the same simple design flows with advanced design technologies, like graphical constraint entry, timing analysis required for high-density, high-performance applications. 

Foundation Series version 1.4 software also supports Xilinx XC3x00, XC5000, XC4000E/X, XC4000XV FPGA families, and the XC9500 CPLD families. Foundation software is available on PC platforms and supports both the Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems. For a limited time Foundation Series pricing starts at $95 in promotional configurations. 

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 of Xilinx, Inc. All XC-prefix products, Spartan, and Foundation Series referenced above are trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. Other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. 
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