Xilinx And CoWare Announce Collaboration For System-Level Design Of Virtex-II Pro FPGAs

Breakthrough Hardware/Software Co-Design Flow Promises To Cut Embedded PowerPC(TM) Design Time By More Than Half; CoWare To Demonstrate Advanced Design Environments For Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs At Programmable World 2002

SAN JOSE and SANTA CLARA, CA--(INTERNET WIRE)--Apr 8, 2002 -- Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX), and CoWare(TM), Inc. today announced a collaboration to jointly develop a system-level design flow for Xilinx(R) FPGAs. With this design flow, Xilinx users can now take full advantage of the software and hardware programmability of the new Xilinx(R) Virtex-II Pro(TM) FPGAs with the embedded PowerPC(TM) 405 processor, as well as for any Xilinx Virtex-II(TM) series FPGAs with the soft MicroBlaze(TM) processor core. A demonstration of this new technology can be seen at Programmable World 2002 (www.xilinx.com/pw2002).

The new design flow will be based on the proven CoWare N2C(TM) system-level design software, which is used by major systems and semiconductor companies to speed the design of complex systems-on-chip (SoC). Now, for the first time, this proven software will be available to design teams of Xilinx devices and will be linked directly to the familiar Xilinx FPGA tools.

"The CoWare N2C software is important to helping our customers realize the benefits of architectural exploration that greatly increases design flexibility and time to market," stated Rich Sevcik, senior vice president of the FPGA products at Xilinx. "The CoWare N2C methods and tools can drastically reduce overall design time of Virtex-II Pro FPGA-based systems."

CoWare CEO Alan Naumann explained, "The Xilinx Platform FPGAs are an innovative and new solution for SoC and embedded systems designers with intense time-to-market requirements. Our alliance with Xilinx will simplify and speed the develop-ment process of these time-critical designs and encourage many designers to use Platform FPGAs to avoid the expense and time delay required to produce custom silicon. We are pleased to have been selected as Xilinx's EDA partner in this exciting new area."

The CoWare N2C System-Level Methodology

The CoWare N2C software provides a complete system-level methodology that can be employed by system architects, hardware designers and software developers. System architects can explore different architectures and hardware/software partitions to make sure their overall design is the best possible. Software and firmware developers can then use this high-level system model to further develop the software while hardware engineers are refining the high-level dedicated hardware blocks to RTL for logic synthesis. Full, at-speed final verification can then be done by running the software on the hardware-programmed FPGA. CoWare N2C includes several capabilities that speed the hardware and software refinement and verification processes.

Speeding the Design Process

Together, Xilinx and CoWare will speed the design process in several ways. First, the overall CoWare design methodology provides an organized, time-proven way to speed the design process, making sure the hardware works effectively with the software from the start of the design process. Second, CoWare N2C includes exclusive Interface Synthesis(TM) technology that automates the design of hardware-software interfaces and hardware-bus interfaces. This significantly accelerates the design process by not only eliminating the need for the designers to understand the details of these interfaces, but, more importantly, they don't need to spend the time designing them. Third, the Xilinx Platform FPGAs allow embedded software designers to get earlier access to the target hardware through a highly optimized, upgradeable IC without the extreme up-front cost and risk of a custom circuit.

About Virtex-II Pro Family

The Xilinx Virtex-II Pro(TM) FPGA family is the world's first FPGA to immerse high-performance IBM PowerPC processors in the Virtex-II fabric with multi-gigabit serial transceivers to solve high-performance architectural challenges. Using its patent-pending IP Immersion(TM) technology, Xilinx has integrated these two essential requirements for next-generation systems, RISC processing and high-speed serial technology, in the popular Virtex-II fabric, which includes the advanced Active Interconnect(TM) , BlockRAM, and clock management features. This unprecedented level of integration offers systems designers the highest level of performance with the lowest system cost available from any programmable solution. The use of behavioral synthesis technologies enables on-demand architectural synthesis, which allows partitioning for optimal system performance during definition, during debug, and after product shipment. Designers can now get the performance they need without costly and time-consuming re-designs.

About CoWare

As the leading supplier of tools for system-level electronic design automation (EDA), CoWare, Inc. provides a platform-based design methodology that can cut system-on-a-chip (SoC) design time in half. CoWare is driving the industry towards a unifying system design language as a founder and leader of SystemC. The CoWare software is employed by major systems, IP and semiconductor companies including Alcatel, ARM, Canon, Fujitsu, IBM, InterDigital, Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sanyo, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Tensilica, Toshiba, and Xilinx. CoWare was recognized as the 5th fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley in 2000(1). For more information, visit www.CoWare.com.

About Xilinx

Xilinx is the leading supplier of complete programmable logic solutions, including advanced integrated circuits, software design tools, predefined system functions delivered as 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, and consumer markets. For more information, visit the Xilinx web site at www.xilinx.com.

CoWare, CoWare N2C and Interface Synthesis are trademarks of CoWare, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. The PowerPC trademark pertains only to the PowerPC 405 processor designed by IBM and not to any other part of Xilinx FPGAs. The PowerPC name and logo are registered trademarks of IBM Corp. and are used under license therefrom.

(1) San Jose Business Journal.