Xilinx Platform FPGAs Enable Latest 160 Gbps Switch Fabric From TeraChip

At the DesignCon Technology Exhibition today, Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) announced that TeraChip, a fabless developer of next generation switch fabrics with offices in Palo Alto and Israel, is using Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs to implement key functional elements of its revolutionary memory-based TCF16X10 switching fabric. Leveraging breakthrough technology, the TeraChip TCF16X10 breaks new ground by switching 160 Gbps in a single 15W chip. TeraChip selected the Virtex-II Pro FPGA over competing devices based on its on-board 3.125Gbps SERDES. Xilinx devices are the only FPGAs in the industry to offer integrated PowerPC embedded technology and 3.125 Gbps serial transceivers.

Having first considered an ASIC, the TeraChip design team found that diverse customer requirements made such a solution impractical. By using the flexible FPGA fabric, TeraChip can now easily adjust each solution to meet individual customer requirements. TeraChip plans on using Xilinx latest Virtex-4 domain-optimized FPGAs in their next generation products to further reduce cost and increase performance.

According to TeraChip's design team, Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs provided the right balance of performance and flexibility needed to address their customer requirements. Not only did this translate to better price points; it also resulted in faster time-to-market.

About the TeraChip TCF16X10 Switch
The first in a series of fully scalable silicon solutions, the TCF16X10 helps system vendors reduce development costs and cycles. Each device supports 16 ports at 10Gbps full duplex per port, resulting in 160 Gbps switching throughput capacity that can expand to 1.28Tbps. Designed for switch vendors serving the enterprise (LAN), storage (SAN) and metro (MAN) markets, the TCF16X10 is capable of switching data streams of 10Gbps (OC-192 and 10G Ethernet) in non-blocking, single-chip shared-memory architecture with eight priority queues per port. The shared-memory fabric switch provides quality of service (QoS) and redundancy capabilities for switch and router vendors serving network edge and core applications. The highly flexible TCF16X10 supports line cards ranging from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps and beyond, and is optimized for carrying IP and Ethernet traffic mixed with TDM voice traffic as well as SAN Fibre Channel traffic.

About Xilinx Virtex FPGAs
Virtex-II Pro devices include these multiple PowerPC CPUs and multi-gigabit serial transceivers at no additional charge, providing unequalled capability and value for today's system design requirements. With over 10,000 worldwide customer engagements, Virtex-II Pro FPGAs have seen rapid adoption in a wide-range of applications.

Announced Fall 2004, the Xilinx Virtex-4 family delivers more options, higher performance and lower power than any other FPGA family available today. With more than 100 technical innovations, the Virtex-4 family consists of 17 devices and three domain-optimized platforms. A multi-platform approach makes it possible for customers to select the optimal mix of resources for their application to achieve the highest functionality and breakthrough performance at the lowest cost. Devices are shipping now. For more information visit www.xilinx.com/virtex4.

About TeraChip
TeraChip fabless semiconductor company providing next-generation merchant switch fabrics for switch and router systems. TeraChip's switching solutions are optimized for enterprise (LAN), storage (SAN) and metro (MAN) switching and server-blade systems. Based on patent-pending technology, the company has developed groundbreaking switching capacity in a single chip. TeraChip components enable networking vendors to boost performance of next-generation switches at a fraction of the cost, size and power consumption of current offerings. Founded in November 2000, TeraChip has received strategic funding from leading venture capital firms. For more information about TeraChip, visit www.tera-chip.com.