Xilinx signs partners to pull cores onto its FPGAs

Xilinx signs partners to pull cores onto its FPGAs
By Craig Matsumoto, EE Times
November 7, 2000 (12:36 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20001107S0008

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Continuing its push to make FPGAs suitable for system-on-chip designs, Xilinx Inc. said Monday (Nov. 6) that it will work with four companies to develop software that will let FPGAs incorporate hard intellectual property (IP) cores, a combination that Xilinx calls the platform FPGA.

Other programmable logic vendor are pursuing solutions similar to the platform FPGA. But Wim Roelandts, chief executive officer of Xilinx, said his company's upcoming Virtex II family of FPGAs is best suited for platform design due to a feature called "IP immersion," which allows any part of the FPGA fabric to be removed and replaced with a hard core. The core's performance is guaranteed regardless of its position inside the fabric, Roelandts said. "Without that, a platform FPGA is not possible," he said.

Xilinx had previously formed alliances with a number of companies, including IBM Corp., to support the development of platform FPGAs. The company announced four additional software partnerships this week, with Synopsys Inc., The MathWorks Inc., Mentor Graphics Corp. and Wind River Systems Inc.: