Xilinx launches device for semi-conductor designing

Xilinx, a player in the programmable logic devices (PLD) market, has unveiled the newest version of its Virtex family of domain-optimised field programmable gate array (FPGA), for designing of chips.

Virtex-5, which is built upon the industry's 'most advanced' 65-nanometer triple-oxide technology, could lead to improved performance and density gains at a 30 per cent higher speed and 65 per cent increased capacity over the previous generation 90-nm FPGAs, the company said.

Cheng Hing-Nan, marketing director, Xilinx Asia Pacific said with the launch of Virtex-5 FPGA semiconductor device and initial shipments of Virtex-5 LX platform, the company was looking at expanding further into the $22.4 billion high-end FPGA market opportunities.

He said the new products would provide a lot of flexibility to the clients and designers in interfacing the additional features much faster with less power consumption.

"This is the highest performance platform on a FPGA device and with the 65-nm technology, the designers can get 65 per cent more functionality on FPGA," Nan added.

Virtex-5 family represents the fifth generation of Xilinx's Virtex product line which was first launched in 1998. "With the new launch, more designers will benefit from the inherent flexibility and cost advantage of Xilinx FPGAs," said Per Hoimberg, director, programmable digital systems marketing, Xilinx.

He said with its FPGAs product line, the company is targetting the booming wireless communication and networking market in India and Asia Pacific region. "We are leveraging the infrastructure boom in telecom as well as aviation and defence sectors," he added.

Hoimberg said as the embedded systems market in India is in a nascent stage, "we expect more demand for our FPGAs in these verticals".

Headquartered in San Jose (USA), Xilinx reported a revenue of $1.7 billion in fiscal 2006. International sales accounted for approximately 60 per cent of the company's total sales.