Samsung Electronics and Xilinx Announce Full Production Qualification for Xilinx's Spartan-6 FPGA Family on 45nm Low-Power Process Technology

SEOUL, South Korea and SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 22, 2010 -- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in advanced semiconductor technology and Xilinx Inc., the world's leading provider of programmable platforms, announced today that Xilinx's Spartan®-6 FPGA family has attained full production qualification on 45-nanometer (nm) process of Samsung Electronics' Foundry business (Samsung Foundry). This advanced process node, coupled with state of the art FPGA design, produces an optimal balance of cost efficiency, low power, and high performance, enabling the Spartan-6 family of FPGAs to address a wide variety of applications in cost sensitive markets. Today's announcement marks the immediate availability of qualified production shipments from Xilinx manufactured at Samsung Foundry.

"This collaborative effort combines Xilinx's leadership in programmable logic solutions with Samsung's world class process technology, manufacturing, and foundry services to create greater value for the market," said Jay Min, vice president, Samsung Electronics' Foundry business. "We are pleased that Xilinx-Samsung relationship is off to a strong start, and looking forward to a successful long-term partnership," he added.

"Strong collaboration between the engineering teams in Samsung Foundry and Xilinx in conjunction with our diligent New Product Introduction methodology has enabled us to simultaneously attain successful production qualification and a flawless manufacturing ramp," said Vincent Tong, Xilinx Senior Vice President, New Product and Worldwide Quality. "Samsung Foundry's manufacturing process coupled with Xilinx innovations in advanced power management technology enabled the new Spartan-6 FPGA family to achieve 65 percent lower power than previous Spartan families."

The sixth generation in the Spartan FPGA Series, the Spartan-6 family is fabricated on a proven, low-power (LP) 45nm, dual-oxide process technology. In the fast-growing 45nm low power arena, complicated designs dictated the need for a close engineering partnership between Xilinx and Samsung Foundry engineering teams. By taking advantage of Samsung Foundry's 45nm LP process technology, Xilinx was able to develop more energy-efficient chips through a two-fold improvement in transistor density for a smaller chip size. This results in the ability of Xilinx to deliver compelling higher-performance, lower- power FPGA solutions to their customers. The production devices are supported in version 11.5 of the Xilinx ISE® Design Suite.

Samsung Foundry's 45nm LP process node is in high volume manufacturing utilizing the most advanced immersion lithography and model based optical proximity correction (OPC) coupled with best-in-class design for manufacturing (DFM). Samsung Foundry worked closely with Xilinx, leveraging these advanced techniques to achieve robust designs and higher product yields.

Samsung Foundry's production of Xilinx 45nm products is starting now and will support the growing demand for Xilinx's FPGA solutions.

About Samsung Electronics' Foundry Business

Samsung Electronics' Foundry business is dedicated to support fabless and IDM semiconductor companies offering full service solutions encompassing design kits and proven IP to fully turnkey manufacturing to achieve market success with advanced IC designs. Currently in mass production at 45 nanometer (nm), Samsung Foundry is also preparing next generation 32/28nm and beyond process technologies by leveraging the deep expertise in advanced process technologies, design technologies, as well as a long, proven track record in high-volume manufacturing with its continued participation in the IBM Joint Development Alliance (JDA). For more information, please visit www.samsung.com/Foundry.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company consists of seven independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

About Xilinx

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