Xilinx Introduces the World's Highest Performance Reconfigurable DSP Solution

New Virtex-5 SX240T FPGA and Floating Point Operator IP Core Targets Broadcast, High-Performance Computing and Other High-Speed DSP Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- May 12, 2008 -- Xilinx, Inc., the world's leading provider of programmable solutions, today announced the introduction of the Virtex(R)-5 SX240T device to its award winning 65nm Virtex-5 SXT FPGA platform optimized for high-performance digital signal processing (DSP). With up to 528GMACs of multiply-and-accumulate performance and over 190 GFLOPS of single-precision, floating-point DSP performance, the new device offers developers of broadcast video, medical imaging, wireless communication, defense, and high-performance computing applications the world's highest performing reconfigurable DSP solution.

"Broadcast equipment manufacturers needing to support High Definition (HD) video require over 5X more processing power than Standard Definition (SD) designs," said Roger Fawcett, managing director of OmniTek, a design consultancy to the leading broadcast companies and provider of video test equipment. "The Virtex-5 SX240T helps meet the high computational demands of broadcast and digital cinema advanced video processing algorithms better than any other FPGA in the market."

The new 65nm Virtex-5 SXT240T device incorporates 1056 25bit x 18bit DSP48E slices that designers can combine to implement scalable signal processing chains using dedicated routing resources. Each DSP48E slice consumes typically 1.4mW/100MHz dynamic power enabling efficient power management without sacrificing performance. In addition, the SX240T device has over 18Mbits of block RAM to store data and coefficients, and 24 high-speed GTP serial transceivers each supporting data rates of up to 3.75Gbps. The higher DSP bandwidth combined with memory and high speed serial connectivity enables designers to use fewer devices on their printed circuit boards, thus reducing overall system costs and power consumption while meeting stringent performance requirements.

In support of the SXT240T device Xilinx has also introduced version v4.0 of its Floating-Point Operator (FPO) IP core. The new FPO IP core has been optimized to use the 25bit x 18bit DSP slices to perform a floating-point multiply operations with half the resources of previous versions. The SXT240T device and the FPO IP core combine to deliver over 190 GFLOPS of single-precision, floating-point DSP performance for high-performance computing, medical imaging and defense applications. This amount of DSP performance can be used to implement up to 63 percent more single-precision floating-point multiply operations or 125 percent single-precision floating-point add operations than competing devices.

"The SX240T device delivers the optimal balance of logic, memory, signal processing, and high speed GTP serial transceivers resources to meet the high-performance demands of leading edge DSP applications," said Steve Douglass vice president of product development at Xilinx. "The Virtex-5 family further optimizes costs and minimizes power consumption by delivering the only FPGA family with built-in PCI Express(R) Endpoint and tri-mode Ethernet MAC blocks."

XtremeDSP Tools

DSP designs can be created for the SXT240T device using the XtremeDSP Solution Development Tools Package that includes System Generator for DSP and the AccelDSP(TM) synthesis tool. These tools provide an FPGA implementation path for DSP algorithms developed using The Mathworks popular MATLAB(R) and Simulink(R) DSP modeling environments. System Generator for DSP provides a Xilinx optimized DSP blockset, netlist generation and hardware-in-the-loop co-simulation plug-ins for the Simulink environment. The AccelDSP synthesis tool extends these capabilities to also include fixed-point conversion, design exploration and RTL generation of floating-point MATLAB algorithms.

Pricing & Availability

Customers can start designing the SXT240T into their next generation products today using the new ISE(R) Design Suite 10.1.01. Initial samples of the device will be available in the third quarter of 2008, with full production expected to begin in the fourth quarter. Pricing for these devices is available now; customers can contact their authorized Xilinx representative to obtain a quote. The Floating-Point Operator IP core V4.0 is provided at no additional cost to customers as part of the standard IP library in the Core Generator system included with ISE Design Suite 10.1.01.

About Xilinx XtremeDSP Solutions

Xilinx is the world's leading supplier of high-performance reconfigurable DSP solutions optimized for performance, price and power. Xilinx XtremeDSP solutions come complete with silicon platforms, design tools, development boards and kits, reference designs and a host of signal processing IP for wireless and multimedia video applications. The XtremeDSP silicon portfolio delivers maximum flexibility with three device platforms: the Virtex-4 SX platform with over 250 GMACS at 500MHz, Virtex-5 SXT platform for ultra-high bandwidth with over 528 GMACS at 550MHz and integrated low-power serial connectivity, and the Spartan(R)-3A DSP platform with the most price-performance optimized devices offering over 30 GMACS at 250MHz. Detailed information is available at http://www.xilinx.com/dsp.

About Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs

Named 'Product and Innovation of the Year' by EDN Magazine, the Virtex-5 family represents the fifth generation in the award-winning Virtex series. Built upon the industry's most advanced 65nm triple-oxide technology, breakthrough new ExpressFabric(TM) technology and proven ASMBL(TM) architecture, the Virtex-5 family includes four domain-optimized platforms for high-speed logic, digital signal processing (DSP), embedded processing and serial connectivity applications. Production devices are shipping now and may be purchased online or through Xilinx distributors. Visit http://www.xilinx.com/virtex5 for more information.

About Xilinx

Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) is the worldwide leader of programmable logic solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at http://www.xilinx.com.

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