Panasonic Chooses Xilinx Virtex-4 And Spartan-3 FPGAs For Professional Broadcast High Definition Camera-Recorder

– Xilinx, Inc., (NASDAQ: XLNX), the world leader in programmable logic solutions, today announced that Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd) has adopted Xilinx Virtex™-4 and Spartan™-3 field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for their latest high definition (HD) camera-recorder, designed for television broadcasting. Panasonic, a leading provider of video technology for the production industry, is among a growing number of companies to rely on Xilinx leading FPGA technology to enable today’s most innovative products for the broadcast industry.

Designed to meet the emerging needs in HD content production, the DVCPRO HD  camera recorder is the first Panasonic HD video product to use P2 (Professional Plug-in) memory card technology and DV tape media technology. Through its innovative new optical system and high-performance digital signal processing capability, the system achieves a level of image quality required by broadcasting stations and higher reliability than existing models. Based on its excellent reputation and superior innovation, the DVCPRO HD video camera-recorder made its debut at the Turin Olympics as the official recording format. The series will also be used as the official recording format for the upcoming Beijing Olympics in 2008.

According to Akihito Nakatukasa, Councilor, Materials and Purchasing Management Dept., Professional AV Systems Business Unit, System Business Group, Panasonic AVC Networks Company, (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.), Xilinx FPGAs were selected based on their superior digital signal processing capabilities, low price points and Panasonic’s previous experience with Xilinx FPGAs incorporated throughout the DVC PRO HD series.

“Xilinx FPGAs not only met our stringent design requirements, the programmable nature of their devices offered us the ultimate flexibility throughout the design cycle. Also their user friendly support policy including that of distributing agents is another key reason we chose Xilinx products over competitive offerings.”

About the DVCPRO HD
The HD video camera-recorder features newly developed DSP capabilities that attain unprecedented accuracy, enabled by the high performance features of Xilinx FPGAs. The XtremeDSP™ slices available in all Virtex-4 FPGAs facilitate new DSP algorithms and higher levels of DSP integration than previously available in FPGAs, while delivering low power consumption, very high performance, and efficient silicon utilization, with up to 512 XtremeDSP slices operating at 500 MHz.

The P2 technology featured in the Panasonic P2 HD video camera-recorder is a compact solid-state memory card designed for professional AV use. Four SD memory cards are packaged together to create a single P2 card, providing four times the capacity. Compliant with PC card standards, the P2 card plugs directly into the card slot of a laptop PC, allowing immediate use and transfer of the data over a network. For more information about Panasonic broadcast solutions, please visit
https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/.

See Xilinx Broadcast Solutions at IBC 2006
Xilinx will be demonstrating its latest FPGA-based solutions for the broadcast industry at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) September 8-12, 2006, at the RAI Convention Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Hall 8 – Stand Number 8.219.

About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.