Xylon Introduces a Novel IP Licensing Program to the FPGA Market

Low-Volume IP Program enables Xilinx® FPGA designers to purchase graphics and video logicBRICKS IP cores online, and with prices that start at € 500, they can save up to 10 times on IP licensing costs

ZAGREB, Croatia, June 8, 2010 – Xylon d.o.o., an FPGA-oriented design house, announced today the availability of logicBRICKS IP cores for Xilinx FPGAs through Xylon’s new Low-Volume IP Program. Primarily created for IP users that design Xilinx FPGA-based products for production volumes in the range of 1 - 5,000 units or similar, this IP program provides simple and quick online purchasing and licensing, full compatibility with Xilinx implementation tools, and typically up to 10 times the savings on licensing costs.

Trading third-party IP cores for Xilinx FPGAs may be troublesome for both IP providers and IP users. While IP providers try to make reusable IP cores profitable and protect their intellectual property, IP users must deal with the usually high IP costs, long-term licensing, diverse IP integration flows and sometimes inadequate technical support. The cost of third-party IP cores is usually too high to justify investments in the case of FPGA developments for low-volume production or modest budget projects. Xylon’s Low-Volume IP program changes the existing market paradigm.

Xylon’s web shop makes it possible to purchase, license and download logicBRICKS IP cores within minutes. Free of cost evaluation logicBRICKS IP cores are also available online. The downloaded logicBRICKS IP cores can be imported into the Xilinx Platform Studio and the Embedded Development Kit, and designers that are familiar with these tools can immediately start designing. Utilization of FPGA resources and feature sets can be easily adjusted using the Xilinx Platform Studio graphical user interface, which allows for drag & drop designing without HDL coding. logicBRICKS are predominantly graphics and video IP cores which enable the development of highly customized graphics and video controllers in Xilinx FPGAs. The provided skilled technical support prevents delays in development.

“We see the introduction of our Low-Volume IP Program as a courageous step that will change the third-party FPGA IP market and widen logicBRICKS’ user base,” said Davor Kovacec, CEO of Xylon. “Our goal is to provide all the benefits that reusable IP cores provide; improved effectiveness of designers, high performance, ease of use and lower overall production costs.”

With more IP cores coming later this year, Xylon currently offers several logicBRICKS IP cores through the Low-Volume IP Program which can be purchased online at http://www.logicbricks.com/Product/Products.aspx?sifraCvor=409.

About logicBRICKS IP Library

Xylon’s IP cores, named logicBRICKS, enable users to quickly develop embedded graphics and video solutions based on Xilinx FPGA. All logicBRICKS IP cores come with detailed documentation, software support and reference designs. The IP cores are fully supported by the Xilinx Platform Studio and the EDK integrated software solution. FPGA designers can setup logicBRICKS configurations through a GUI, optimize feature sets and control the utilization of FPGA resources, and in a drag & drop fashion, implement Xilinx SoC without hand coding.

In addition to the conventional IP verification techniques, such as code coverage, highly configurable logicBRICKS IP cores are validated by an in-house developed, automated validation test-bed. The test-bed compares captured outputs of the logicBRICKS test hardware with outputs of a PC modeled IP core. Every IP core has been typically validated in several hundred configurations that must pass a battery of tests. The final outcome is a thorough validation which checks up to several million validation cornerstone cases.

The logicBRICKS IP cores can be evaluated and tested on Xylon’s hardware platforms that are available through the web shop at http://www.logicbricks.com/Product/Products.aspx?sifraCvor=415.

About Xylon

Xylon is an electronic company focused on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) design development, established in 1995 and based in Zagreb, Croatia. Xylon offers a comprehensive IP cores library named logicBRICKS. logicBRICKS are optimized to suit Xilinx FPGA architectures. Xylon’s expertise in the fields of embedded graphics, video and networking is confirmed by a large number of successful FPGA designs, produced by our partners and distributed worldwide. All Xylon IP cores are exhaustively tested to ensure that they can be easily implemented and integrated in the customers’ designs. More information can be found at www.logicbricks.com, the official Xylon web site.