Xilinx outlines modular programmable design capability

Xilinx outlines modular programmable design capability
By Michael Santarini, EE Times
March 28, 2000 (5:26 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000328S0071

PARIS — Xilinx Inc. will give designers an ability to place pieces of a design on separate FPGAs for testing before they are combined and tested on a single FPGA, according to Wim Roelandts, president and chief executive officer of Xilinx Inc., speaking in a keynote address at the Date 2000 conference on Tuesday (March 28). The company will offer this modular design capability within a month, Roelandts said.

"It is only programmable logic that can do a module design, can be tested in real silicon at full speed, independent of the other modules and then later put together," Roelandts said of the technology. "This is another way programmable logic is making the job of a designer much easier."

Noting the tremendous changes in programmable logic over the last five years, Roelandts said device density has increased 40x, speed has increased 75x, cost effectiveness has improved 33x, while compile times have decreased 66x.

"Programmable chips today are large, they are fast, less expensive than they used to be and the software is becoming very fast," he said. "You can push a button on your computer, go get a cup of coffee and by the time you are back, you have programmed a device."

Predicting further improvements over the next few years, Roelandts said programmable logic will become a greater contender to standard cell devices, reaching "50 million programmable gates."