Xilinx
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Xilinx | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: XLNX) |
| Founded | 1984, public since 1990 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, CA |
| Key people | Moshe Gavrielov, Wim Roelandts |
| Industry | Integrated Circuits |
| Products | FPGAs, CPLDs |
| Revenue | $1.842 billion (2007) |
| Employees | 3,353 |
| Website | www.xilinx.com |
Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) is the world's largest developer and fabless manufacturer of a class of reconfigurable hardware chips known as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). It was founded by Ross Freeman (FPGA inventor), Bernie Vonderschmitt (fabless pioneer), and Jim Barnett in 1984 and was based in Silicon Valley. Today, their HQ resides in San Jose, California (U.S.); the European HQ is based in Dublin (Ireland) and the Asia Pacific/Japan HQ is based in Singapore. It also has offices in Austin, Texas; Longmont, Colorado; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA); Toronto (Canada); Bangalore and Hyderabad (India); and Penicuik, (Scotland).
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[edit] Xilinx in Fortune - 100 Best Companies to Work For
Xilinx joined the ranks of the "100 Best…" in 2001 as number 14, rose to number six in 2002 and to fourth place in 2003. At fourth place, Xilinx became the top publicly traded company on the list (the first three were private companies), the top high-tech company and the highest ranked company in the Western states
[edit] Technologies
Xilinx is a developer of FPGA and CPLD devices that are used in numerous applications within telecommunications, automotive, consumer, defense, and other fields. Xilinx offers device families for glue logic (CoolRunner, CoolRunner II), low-cost (Spartan), and high-end (Virtex) applications in addition to supporting devices such as PROMs.
The Virtex-II Pro, Virtex-4, and Virtex-5 FPGA families are of particular interest to system-on-a-chip (SoC) designers because they can include up to two embedded IBM PowerPC cores.[1][2] These designs are capable of running a regular embedded OS (such as Linux or vxWorks) and interfacing with custom logic implemented in the surrounding fabric.
Xilinx develops IP cores, intended to reduce application design time. These cores range from simple functions (such as BCD encoders, counters, etc.) to complex systems (such as multi-gigabit networking cores, the Microblaze soft microprocessor, and the compact Picoblaze microcontroller). In addition, Xilinx Design Services (XDS) can create custom cores for a fee.
Xilinx offers electronic design automation (EDA) tools for use with its devices. Its central product family is ISE, which offers a complete EDA flow: synthesis from Verilog or VHDL, place-and-route (PAR), and creation of the bit files that are used to configure the chip. Xilinx's Embedded Developer's Kit (EDK) supports the embedded PowerPC 405 core (found in the Virtex-II Pro and some Virtex-4 and -5 chips), and the Microblaze. Xilinx's System Generator for DSP simulates and implements high-performance DSP designs on Xilinx's FPGAs. A freeware version of their EDA software called 'ISE Webpack' is available for use with some of their non high performance chips. They are the only (as of 2007) FPGA vendor to distribute a native Linux freeware synthesis toolchain.
[edit] Current Family Lines
Xilinx has two main FPGA families: the high performance Virtex series and the low cost Spartan series. They also manufacture two CPLD lines, the CoolRunner and the 9500 series. Each model series has been released in multiple generations since their launch.
[edit] Spartan series
The Spartan series are low cost parts, roughly parallel to the Virtex 2 series. They are slower than the corresponding Virtex parts, and neither embedded PowerPC cores nor SerDes hardware are available.
| Spartan 3 generation (90nm) | Logic cells | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Spartan-3 | 1700 to 75 000 | For high density and high pin-count applications |
| Spartan-3A | 1500 to 25 000 | I/O optimized |
| Spartan-3AN | 1500 to 25 000 | Non volatile memory packaged with a 3A |
| Spartan-3E | 2 000 to 33 000 | Logic optimized |
| Spartan-3A DSP | 37 000 to 54 000 | DSP optimized |
[edit] Virtex series
The Virtex series has in addition to the normal FPGA logic fabric embedded fixed function hardware for commonly used functions such as multipliers, memories, serial transceivers and microprocessor cores. The number of multipliers range from a few tens to several hundreds, depending on the device. Likewise, the amount of block ram ranges from a few hundred kilobits to tens of megabits. While all models include some block ram and multipliers, embedded PowerPC cores and SerDes hardware are only available on select models.
Starting with the Virtex-4, Xilinx transitioned to having multiple versions of their product with different features, optimized for different purposes. Traditionally the only difference between the models within a series has been size and thus price.
| Virtex-4 models | Logic cells | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Virtex-4 LX | 14 000 to 200 000 | Optimized for logic, up to 200 000 logic cells. |
| Virtex-4 FX | 12 000 to 140 000 | Includes embedded PowerPC cores on the die, and serial connectivity. |
| Virtex-4 SX | 23 000 to 55 000 | Optimized for DSP and memory-intensive applications |
The Virtex-4 series was introduced in 2004 and manufactured on a 1.2V, 90nm, triple-oxide process technology.
| Virtex-5 models | Logic cells | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Virtex-5 LX | 30 000 to 330 000 | Optimized for logic, up to 50% larger than the previous generation Virtex-4. |
| Virtex-5 LXT | 30 000 to 330 000 | A variant of the LX which also adds SerDes transceivers for serial connectivity |
| Virtex-5 SXT | 35 000 to 100 000 | Optimized for DSP and memory-intensive applications with serial connectivity |
| Virtex-5 FXT | 35 000 to 100 000 | Includes embedded PowerPC cores on the die, and high-speed serial connectivity. |
The Virtex-5 series was introduced in 2006. With it, Xilinx moved from their traditional 4-input LUT design to 6-input LUTs. It is a 65nm design fabricated in 1.0V, triple-oxide process technology.
Older generation devices, such as the Virtex, Virtex-II, and Virtex-II Pro, are also still available, although their functionality is largely superseded by the Virtex-4 and -5.
[edit] Competition
Competitors to Xilinx include Altera, Lattice Semiconductor, Actel and QuickLogic.
[edit] Origin of company name
Having tried to register a number of company names which were more conventional and had them rejected because they were already taken, the founders decided to deliberately create an unusual name in order to ensure the name was accepted. Xilinx founder Bill Carter says that the name Xilinx was chosen because "The 'X's' at each end represent programmable logic blocks. The "linx" represents programmable links that connect the logic blocks together". [3]
