Xilinx Extends its Lead in PCI Market With Complete 64- and 32-bit Solutions Below ASSP Prices

IP News

SAN JOSE, Calif.----Jan. 31, 2000-- Xilinx, Inc., announced today the immediate availability of its low-cost PCI solution for the Spartan(TM)-II FPGA family, enabling designers to cut the cost of compliant and embedded PCI implementations by more than half compared to PCI Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs). The solution includes 5-V and 3.3-V compliant 32-bit and 64-bit PCI interfaces for up to 66 MHz designs, PCI consulting services, plus four customizable asynchronous FIFO reference designs that seamlessly integrate with the PCI interfaces. As a result, designers of high-volume fully-compliant PCI applications such as PC add-in boards, networking products, modems, and CompactPCI boards benefit from the flexibility and cost reduction of an FPGA.

Joel Van Doren, a senior digital design engineer at Xerox Engineering Systems, a leading provider of wide-format hardware, software, supplies, and service tailored to the technical document community worldwide, for wide format xerographic plotter, copier, and ink-jet equipment, chose the Xilinx PCI core for a PCI-to-local bus bridge device. ``The Xilinx PCI core has the most flexibility and complete feature set of any vendor we evaluated. We were most impressed with the silicon features, as well as a smooth migration path across the various cores and device densities. If our system performance requirements change, we have every confidence that we can import a new core to the existing design with minimal engineering effort.''

The new PCI cores can be implemented in a wide range of Spartan-II devices. The PCI pinout in selected packages is compatible between various device sizes to allow customers to select the most cost-effective solution for a specific application and migrate from one device to another without having to re-layout the boards.

``When Xilinx introduced PCI with Spartan series, it started the trend of providing reduced solution cost with greater flexibility and levels of integration than fixed ASSPs,'' said Babak Hedayati, director of Intellectual Property Marketing and Business Development at Xilinx. ``Now, with Spartan-II products, designers can take advantage of more gates and system-level features such as on-chip BlockRAM and SelectI/O(TM) features and the combination of LogiCORE(TM) or AllianceCORE(TM) products to get a much more flexible and cost-effective solution over other implementations.'' In addition to the PCI intellectual property products Xilinx offers PCI consultant services through its XPERTS(TM) partners. These third-party specialists are trained on Xilinx PCI solutions and provide design services such as core integration and speed optimization. For example, with the purchase of PCI products from Insight, a Xilinx US distributor, three to five days of free design services are included with the license through Memec Design Services.

The Spartan-II family delivers 100,000 system gates for under $10 at speeds of 200 MHz and beyond, offering unmatched design flexibility. These low-powered 2.5-volt devices feature I/Os that operate at up to 3.3 volts with full 5-volt tolerance. Spartan-II devices also feature multiple Delay Lock Loops (DLLs), on-chip RAM (block and distributed) and the versatility of Select I/O technology supporting over 16 high-performance interface standards; all of this in a device that offers unlimited programmability and can be upgraded in the field.

License price and availability

The PCI cores for Spartan-II devices are available now and can be configured and downloaded over the Internet from Xilinx IP Center (www.xilinx.com/ipcenter). The 32-bit PCI cores for Spartan-II are available with Xilinx LogiCORE PCI32 Spartan products at $4,995, and Xilinx PCI32 design kit at $8,995. The 64-bit PCI cores for the Spartan-II family are available in Xilinx LogiCORE PCI64 products at $14,995.

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 fulfills more than half of the world demand 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.