Velio and Xilinx Collaborate on Reference Design Board To Demonstrate 10g Ethernet Connectivity

MILPITAS, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Velio Communications, Inc., a leading developer of high-speed communications semiconductors, and Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX - news), today announced they have successfully completed comprehensive interoperability testing of Velio's industry-leading VC1003 3.125 Gb/s Octal SerDes and the Xilinx® Virtex®-II Platform FPGAs. The proven interoperability will help accelerate the development of terabit routers, switches and other optical networking equipment based on 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology. The companies also announced that Velio has joined the Xilinx Reference Design Alliance Program.

"The seamless interconnectivity demonstrated by the evaluation platform will allow system architects to focus on system level aspects of the design rather than verifying connectivity," said Per Holmberg, senior marketing manager of IP Solutions Marketing at Xilinx.

"Velio is one of the few companies in the industry today shipping a 3.125 Gb/s SerDes, let alone an octal," said Anna Chiang, director of product marketing for Velio. "This reference design with Xilinx will greatly facilitate and speed time-to-market for joint designs that use a Virtex-II FPGA and our VC1003 device."

The board demonstrates interoperability between the Octal SerDes and the Virtex-II FPGA, providing designers of high-speed systems with an evaluation platform for testing the VC1003 Octal SerDes. The board can be used to transmit and receive patterns defined by the user within the Virtex II FPGA, including user set patterns, algorithmically derived patterns, or PRBS patterns. The board permits observing the high-speed serial signals on SMA connectors, or on a Tyco HM-ZD connector. This board is compatible with the XAUI interoperability platform developed by Tyco.

As part of the interoperability testing, critical interface timing between the 3.125Gb/s VC1003 and the Virtex II FPGA have been completed and verified, and a complete reference design with application note, including Verilog and VHDL code, is included to speed time-to-market. Velio's participation in the Xilinx Reference Design Alliance Program means the two companies will jointly market the evaluation board, cross-reference their application notes and product data sheets on each other's web sites, and provide layout guidelines and board schematics. For more information on this reference design, visit: http://www.xilinx.com/company/reference_design/velio_vc1003.htm .

Part of the Data-EOS(TM) family, the VC1003 is an 8-lane SerDes IC that operates from 2.7 - 3.125 Gb/s with a power dissipation of only 1.9W. It is targeted for use in a wide range of applications, such as Gigabit networks, optical routers, and 3G wireless base stations that require a SerDes optimized for driving backplanes. Other members of the Data EOS family include the VC1001 for 1.25Gb/s applications, and the VC1002 for 2.5Gb/s applications.

About Xilinx

Xilinx is the leading supplier of complete programmable logic solutions, including advanced integrated circuits, software design tools, predefined system functions delivered as intellectual property cores, and unparalleled field engineering support. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Xilinx invented the field programmable gate array (FPGA) and fulfills more than half of the world demand for these devices today. Xilinx solutions enable customers to reduce significantly the time required to develop products for the computer, peripheral, telecommunications, networking, industrial control, instrumentation, aerospace, defense, low power portable and consumer markets. For more information, visit the Xilinx web site at http://www.xilinx.com .

About Velio Communications

Velio is a leading provider of high bandwidth/low power semiconductors that solve the intra-system communications challenges faced in the architecture of next generation communications and storage platforms. Founded in 1998, Velio has achieved more than 50 design wins and is shipping for revenue its backplane SerDes, Crosspoint Switch and STS-1 Grooming Switch with Tier One and Tier Two customers in telecom, datacom and storage markets. Venture funded by leading firms such as Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Capital Research Group, Velio is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., and has design centers in Lowell, Massachusetts, Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Princeton, New Jersey. For more information on Velio Communications, visit www.velio.com or contact the company at (408) 474-0700.

Velio and Velio Communications are trademarks of Velio Communications. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.