CEO Interview: Moshe Gavrielov of Xilinx

By Peter Clarke, EETimes Europe
February 11, 2009

London — Moshe Gavrielov (pictured), the relatively new CEO of Xilinx Inc., came to London to launch Xilinx's Spartan-6 and Virtex-6 ranges of FPGAs and to spread a little celebration around the world " celebration of Xilinx's 25th birthday. In a difficult environment Gavrielov reckons that FPGA-makers are sitting in some of the better seats.

EE Times Europe: Could you comment on the current economic situation and whether price deflation could take hold in the semiconductor sector?

Moshe Gavrielov: Well in our fourth quarter sales were down 5 percent from Q3. But that is better than most other semiconductor companies. The consumer sector is getting hit hardest and soonest. We don't have an enormous amount of exposure to the consumer sector. We have high hopes for Spartan-6 but consumer is not a high level of application for us. We are mainly used in military and communications, some industrial. We are projecting calendar Q1 to be 15 to 25 percent down. I don't think anyone is seeing improvement until the second half of 2009. It's going to get worse before it gets better but I think we're doing better than most.

EE Times Europe: Who is making your Spartan-6 and Virtex-6 silicon; Samsung and UMC?

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