Altium supports Xilinx’s new Spartan-3 platform FPGAs
SYDNEY, Australia – April 16, 2003 – Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), a leading developer of Windows-based electronic design and development software, today announced its full support for Xilinx, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: XLNX) Spartan-3 platform FPGAs, which were announced April 14, 2003. Altium, a member of the Xilinx AllianceEDA program, believes that the Spartan-3 platform represents a milestone in both FPGA size and price making it an ideal platform for integrating microprocessors into FPGA designs.
“At Altium, we see FPGAs as the platform of the future for electronics system design,” says Nick Martin, Joint CEO and founder of Altium. “With unprecedented density range and the lowest price points, Xilinx’s new Spartan-3 platform FPGAs provide an ideal production platform for microprocessor-based systems on FPGAs. By supporting the Spartan-3 platform in upcoming versions of our nVisage products, we are providing the mainstream market of engineers easy access to these high-capacity FPGAs for development and production.”
About the Spartan-3 platform
With its new class of 90nm Spartan-3 platform FPGAs, Xilinx is transforming the semiconductor landscape. Ranging from 50K to 5M system gates, the Spartan-3 platform is the world’s lowest cost FPGA with unrivaled price points. Starting under US$3.50, the Spartan-3 family addresses customer demand for low cost solutions with devices priced at 1M gates for under US$20 and 4M gates for under US$100. Using the most advanced 90nm semiconductor process technology, Xilinx has achieved a 50 percent chip-size reduction for Spartan-3, as compared to 130nm technology, which represents cost savings of up to 80% over competitive offerings. With Spartan-3, Xilinx is poised to address entirely new high volume applications in the “sweet spot” of mid-range ASICs – such as low cost routers, storage servers, medical and industrial imaging, and residential gateways – to significantly expand the total available market for the Spartan Series. Xilinx continues to be at the forefront of the semiconductor industry's race to 90nm and 300mm wafers via its dual manufacturing strategy with IBM and UMC. For complete information about Spartan-3 FPGAs, visit http://www.xilinx.com/spartan3.
About Xilinx’s AllianceEDA Program
The AllianceEDA program is based on a commitment to open systems and a philosophy of providing quality technological solutions and innovations through focused partnerships. The shared goal of the AllianceEDA program and its members is to provide the best programmable logic solutions for joint customers.
About Altium Limited
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), trading as Protel International Limited (ASX: PRI) prior to August 6, 2001, is a leading global developer and supplier of desktop Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and embedded software design tools for the Microsoft Windows environment.
Since the company’s foundation in 1985 and its release of the world’s first Microsoft Windows–based EDA tool in 1991, Altium has continued to apply the most advanced software design methods to provide powerful, easy-to-use and affordable design software to engineers and electronics designers worldwide.
Altium’s current product brands include Protel, nVisage, P-CAD, TASKING, Accolade, CircuitMaker and CAMtastic. These products offer tailored solutions covering a range of hardware and software design processes.
Altium is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and operates a number of sales and support offices in Australia, the United States, Japan and Europe, as well as maintaining a large reseller network in all other major markets. More information about the company and its products and services may be obtained from our website at www.altium.com.
Corporate Media Contact
Jessica Maxwell
Altium Limited
Level 3, 12a Rodborough Road
Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086
Australia
www.altium.com
Telephone: +61 2 9975 7710
Fax: +61 2 9975 7720
Email: jessica.maxwell@altium.com.au
Altium, Protel, DXP, Design Explorer, nVisage, P-CAD, TASKING, Accolade, CircuitMaker, CAMtastic, Situs and Topological Autorouting and their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Altium Limited or its subsidiaries. “Xilinx” and “Spartan” are the registered trademarks of Xilinx Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners, and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.
