Xilinx and Agilent Technologies Demonstrate World's First PowerPC with RapidIO Interface

Solution uses Alpha Data's ADM XPL board to implement the RapidIO processor solution

BOSTON, ESC Boston 2002, Nov. 19, 2002 - Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq:XLNX) and Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced that the companies will demonstrate the world's first PowerPC processor with a RapidIO™ interface at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) being held at the Boston Hynes Convention Center, Booth #411, from Nov. 19 to 20, 2002. Developed in collaboration with Agilent and Alpha Data, a member of Xilinx XPERTS Program, the demonstration includes the Xilinx® LogicCORE™ Physical Layer RapidIO core and processor buffer designed to connect the core to the PowerPC bus embedded into the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro™ FPGA.

Today's news underscores the benefits of the collaboration between Xilinx and Agilent to provide customers with robust and fully tested tools for developing programmable systems and high-speed interconnect solutions such as RapidIO, SPI-4.2, and PCI Express. In October, Xilinx and Agilent also announced the successful integration of the Xilinx ChipScope Pro tool with Agilent's trace core and FPGA trace port analyzer to cut costs and time of programmable in-circuit system design.

"The demonstration shows how RapidIO technology can provide seamless connectivity for next-generation networks and embedded systems," said Sam Fuller, president of the RapidIO Trade Association. "Collaboration between leading companies, like this one with Agilent, Alpha Data and Xilinx, will help to accelerate the industry-wide adoption of RapidIO technology and help satisfy the ever-increasing need for bandwidth to enable highly scalable next generation multiprocessing systems."

"Xilinx continues to meet market needs for emerging interconnect standards," said Ron Nersesian, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Design Verification Unit. "Agilent continues to work closely with Xilinx, the market leader for FPGAs, to provide customers with robust bus analysis solutions for standards such as Rapid I/O, SPI-4.2, Serial ATA, PCI Express and other high-speed interconnects."

"We are extremely pleased to work with Agilent and Alpha Data to demonstrate the capability of our Virtex-II Pro FPGAs and RapidIO solution," said Sandeep Vij, vice president of worldwide marketing at Xilinx. "The proven hardware demonstration will help our mutual customers substantially reduce time-to-market for high-performance and low latency applications such as network control planes, DSP traffic aggregation and enterprise storage channel processing."

About the Demonstration
The demonstration shows the Virtex-II Pro embedded PowerPC processor with a tightly integrated RapidIO interface using Alpha Data's ADM XPL development board for the RapidIO processor solution and the Xilinx Benelux XLVDS board to implement the RapidIO endpoint solution. RapidIO packets are transmitted over an 8-bit 500 Mbps RapidIO link. The demonstration implements integer math performed by the embedded PowerPC and transfers it over the RapidIO link. An Agilent 16700 Logic Analyzer configured with the RapidIO Test Module software is used to verify the RapidIO protocol and eye diagram of the data stream. For more information about the demonstration, visit: www.xilinx.com/company/reference_design/alphadata_adm-xpl-rio.htm.

License price and availability
The RapidIO 8-bit port Physical Layer interface and Transport/Logical Layer interface cores are available now as LogiCORE™ products under the terms of SignOnce™ IP license and are priced at $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. The RapidIO product also includes the processor buffer design to connect the RapidIO endpoint to the PowerPC CoreConnect PLB™. For more information and to purchase the Virtex-II Pro FPGA, visit www.xilinx.com/platform. Complete information about the core and Xilinx connectivity solutions is available at www.xilinx.com/connectivity.

Xilinx Reference Design Alliance Program
The Xilinx Reference Design Alliance Program (www.xilinx.com/reference_design) builds partnerships with industry leading semiconductor and design companies to develop reference designs for accelerating product development and improving time-to-market. The reference design boards are ideal for a wide variety of electronic systems, including networking, communications, video imaging, DSP, optical interface, and emerging market applications.

About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics and life sciences. The company's 36,000 employees serve customers in more than 120 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $6 billion in fiscal year 2002. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.

About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.

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