Xilinx Starts Shipments of Virtex-6 FPGAs
Company Meets Key Silicon Milestone for High-Performance Targeted Design Platforms, With Over 700 Customers Representing 1000 Projects Engaged in Early Access Program
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 31 /-- Xilinx, Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) today announced first shipments of Virtex(R)-6 FPGAs, the programmable foundation for applications requiring low power operation, high-speed connectivity, and high-computational performance. With high-speed serial transceivers, power-saving technology and 40nm architecture, the Virtex-6 family is the foundation upon which Xilinx and selected third party vendors are developing tools and IP resources for systems developers and designers in a variety of markets, including: communications, audio/visual and broadcast, industrial, test and measurement, medical and military.
The new Virtex-6 and low-cost Spartan(R)-6 families, both announced in February this year, offer the industry's lowest cost, lowest power, largest density, highest performance and highest system bandwidth by lowering total system cost by up to 50%, reducing total power consumption by up to 65%, and delivering an unprecedented capacity of 760,000 logic cells. These capabilities significantly lower the cost and risk of system-on-chip development compared to ASICs, while delivering the levels of high-performance and low-power consumption designers expect from advanced IC manufacturing technologies. Already, over 700 customers representing 1000 projects are engaged with the Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGA Early Access program, with devices of both families already in customers' hands. As scheduled, engineering samples of the Virtex-6 LX240T device are available now with general availability of remaining devices of both families on track for delivery in the second half of this year.
"The Virtex-6 family gives us the high-performance logic, high-bandwidth I/O and powerful DSP resources we need to address many of the computation-intensive systems we offer the military and aerospace industry," said Lynn Patterson, vice president and general manager of Modular Solutions, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing. "This exciting new family of FPGAs can be used in applications ranging from infrastructure communications to electronic warfare and image processing, while enabling designers to stay within their power budgets as they increase levels of integration to meet requirements for size, weight and power."
"Having early access to technology like the new Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGAs, with their high-performance and low power consumption, is critical for Agilent to deliver next generation Oscilloscopes that exceed our customers' needs," said Brad Doerr, R&D Manager for Agilent's High Performance Oscilloscopes Group. "Agilent's early adoption of leading edge technology is one of the reasons we have been the fastest growing oscilloscope manufacturer since 1997."
Virtex-6 FPGAs give designers of high-performance systems unprecedented levels of logic, DSP and connectivity capabilities. The devices' 11.2 Gbps transceivers enable developers of 40GbE and 100GbE wired telecom equipment to address the need for high bandwidth within the power and cooling footprints of existing data centers, while its power-saving technology helps builders of "green" base stations offer network operators the ability to realize significant reduction in OPEX and carbon emissions. Virtex-6 FPGAs also enable the audio/video broadcast industry to achieve higher image quality and support more video streams while reducing power consumption and cost per channel. For the aerospace and defense industry, Virtex-6 FPGAs satisfy the requirements for implementing high performance computing and software defined radio applications.
"Our new generation of high-end FPGAs is well on its way toward continuing Xilinx high-performance leadership under the Virtex brand, the industry's most widely-adopted family of FPGAs," added Xilinx Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Vin Ratford. "The availability of both next generation Virtex and Spartan devices marks the first phase in our delivery of targeted design platforms that lower development costs by freeing designers from many of the mundane tasks of building a systems infrastructure so that they can focus their efforts on adding their unique value."
Xilinx targeted design platforms help customers to achieve first-pass design success and accelerate their product-to-market goals by integrating design tools, development boards, IP cores and software for a wide array of applications. As part of the targeted design platform, Xilinx has aligned reference design development and delivery with its robust third-party ecosystem.
Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGAs make up the base platform along with the ISE(R) Design Suite; third-party synthesis, simulation, and signal integrity tools; reference designs; and IP. In the coming months, Xilinx will begin delivering domain-specific platforms supporting embedded, DSP and logic/connectivity system development. These domain-specific platforms augment the base logic platform with a predictable, reliable and intelligently targeted set of integrated technologies that include higher-level design methodologies and tools, IP, development hardware, operating systems and reference designs optimized for embedded processing, DSP and logic/connectivity design. These platforms will be followed by market-specific platforms that enable software and hardware developers to quickly build and then run their specific application for markets such as automotive, consumer, communications and many others.
About the Virtex-6 FPGA Family
Built on UMC's 40nm process using third-generation Xilinx ASMBL(TM) architecture, the Virtex-6 FPGA family is supported by a new generation of development tools and a vast library of IP already available for the Virtex-5 FPGA family to ensure productive development and design migration. Providing 15 percent higher performance and 50 percent lower system power consumption compared to competitive 40nm FPGA offerings, the new devices operate on a 1.0v core voltage with an available 0.9v low-power option. The Virtex-6 FPGA family comprises three domain-optimized FPGA platforms that deliver different feature mixes to best address a variety of customer applications:
-- Virtex-6 LXT FPGAs - optimized for applications that require high-performance logic, DSP and serial connectivity with low-power GTX 6.5Gbps serial transceivers
-- Virtex-6 SXT FPGAs - optimized for applications that require ultra high-performance DSP and serial connectivity with low-power GTX 6.5Gbps serial transceivers
-- Virtex-6 HXT FPGAs - optimized for communications applications that require the highest-speed serial connectivity with up to 64 serial transceivers supporting up to 11.2Gbps
Pricing and Availability
Detailed pricing information for Virtex-6 FPGAs is available through Xilinx sales offices and distributors. Xilinx Virtex-6 EasyPath FPGAs offer a conversion-free path to higher volume production with up to 75 percent cost reduction.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
XILINX, the Xilinx Logo, Virtex, Spartan, ISE, and other designated brands included herein are trademarks of Xilinx in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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