Xilinx Extends Virtex-II Pro™ Product Line With 10 Gbps Serial Transceivers

When combined with RocketPHY physical layer transceivers, Xilinx Virtex-II Pro and Virtex-II Pro X FPGAs deliver fully compliant solutions for SONET, Fibre Channel, and Ethernet systems from the optical module through the backplane. Today's announcements significantly extend the company's technology and market lead in serial connectivity by offering the industry's most comprehensive set of solutions, ranging from 622 Mbps to 10 Gbps - and providing a seamless migration path to10 Gbps. 

"Xilinx offers system architects a low-risk path for making the transition from parallel to serial interfaces," said Sterling Perrin, senior analyst with IDC's Optical Networks Program. "Due to a combination of internal R&D talent capable of delivering such a wide range of solutions up to 10 Gbps and a strong network of strategic partnerships, Xilinx is well-positioned to catalyze broad adoption of serial solutions in the market place."

"Since the introduction of Virtex-II Pro, we've worked with hundreds of customers to provide comprehensive, scalable and cost-effective solutions for multi-gigabit system design. Our customers have made it clear that providing near term solutions at 5 and 6 Gbps for backplane applications with scalability to 10 Gbps are critical components for their success," said Rich Sevcik, senior vice president and general manager of the Programmable Logic Systems Group at Xilinx. "It is through our internal expertise that we have been able to satisfy our customer needs while achieving a leadership position in delivering 10 Gbps technology today with an infrastructure to provide continued scalability in the future." 

"This technology is imperative to the industry's move toward serial connectivity. Xilinx's offering of 10 Gbps solutions - with the advent of a seamless low risk integration path to get there - will spur the broad deployment of high-speed serial technology," said Sterling Perrin, senior analyst at IDC. "Beginning with the announcement of Virtex-II Pro last year, Xilinx has established a clear technology lead by providing a complete suite of high speed serial connectivity solutions including IP, silicon, software and services."

Xilinx: Making Serial Tsunami Vision a Reality Today
Today's announcements mark another major milestone for the Xilinx "Serial Tsunami" initiative, established to accelerate the industry's migration from parallel to high-speed serial I/O by delivering a new generation of connectivity solutions for system designers. The trend toward high-speed serial connectivity is being driven by companies across a wide range of industries as a means to reduce system costs, simplify system design, and provide scalability to keep pace with current and future bandwidth requirements. Serial solutions will ultimately be deployed in nearly every aspect of every electronic product imaginable, from chip-to-chip interfacing, backplane connectivity and system boards to box-to-box communications. 

About Xilinx Virtex-II Pro X FPGAs
The company's new Virtex-II ProX FPGA architecture, which incorporates embedded hard IP in the transceiver module, will provide the industry with the first programmable ICs to directly drive optical transceivers to build OC-48 SONET compliant systems and simplify SONET implementation for OC-192 data rates and above. Virtex-II Pro X FPGAs will include integrated RocketIO™ X multi-gigabit transceivers (MGTs), supporting operating ranges of 2.488 Gbps to 10.3125 Gbps per channel, enabling new applications such as serial backplane which require multiple 5, 6 and 10 Gbps channels to implement. 

The integrated 10 Gbps RocketIO X transceiver includes optional 8B/10B and 64B/66B coding, optional 20-bit/ 16-bit data path, 20x/16x clocking, channel bonding, and programmable features for optimizing MGT performance including pre-emphasis, receiver equalization, differential voltage swing, and on-chip termination. Custom circuitry for 10G Base-R applications significantly simplifies implementation for 10G Ethernet applications. RocketIO X transceivers are adaptive to system requirements and can be dynamically programmed via an internal configuration port. 

Since the introduction of the company's flagship Virtex-II Pro family in March 2002, 3.125 Gbps transceivers have been an integral part of the Virtex-II Pro platform FPGA. Used in multiples, these transceivers support effective bandwidths through the FPGA up to 10Gbps and above. With the delivery of Virtex-II Pro X FPGAs, Xilinx will offer 10Gbps serial transceivers, which used in multiples, will support effective bandwidths through the FPGA of more than 40Gbps. 

Virtex-II Pro X FPGAs will support chip-to-chip, board-to-board, box-to-box, and chip-to-optics applications and support standards including 10G Ethernet (10G Base-R/W/X), 10 G Fibre Channel (4 x 3.1875 Gbps), SxI-5, TFI-5, PCI Express, Serial RapidIO, XFP, and VSR optics. In addition to being an active participant in key industry bodies driving serial technology standards, Xilinx is leveraging its extensive network of "ecosystem" partners (EDA, reference design, IP, etc.) to guarantee interoperability and access to the latest technology and design tools.

Virtex-II Pro X devices will be 100 percent pin-compatible with the Virtex-II Pro family of devices, providing seamless scalability and low risk migration path to 10 Gbps for current Virtex-II Pro customers.

About the Xilinx Serial Tsunami Initiative
Through the Serial Tsunami initiative, Xilinx is providing solutions for a wide range of serial connectivity applications across multiple markets including networking, telecommunications, and enterprise storage markets, which are expected o reach a total of over 1.7 billion USD in 2005, according to the 2002 Switching & Routing and Optical Transport Semiconductors report from RHK, and the 2002 Advanced Bus and Interface Markets and Trends report from Electronic Trend Publications. 

Pricing and Availability
Virtex-II Pro X devices are expected to be available by the end of the year. Pricing on the Virtex-II Pro X devices will be available later this year. Engineers can begin designing Virtex-II Pro X applications today with Xilinx's ISE 5.2i design tools, through an early customer access program. Customers are urged to contact their representative for more details on this program. For additional information on the Xilinx 10 Gbps suite of solutions, visit www.xilinx.com/virtex2pro_10g.

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

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