Xilinx Accelerates Expansion Into $23B ASIC Market with Breakthrough Pricing for 90nm Spartan-3 Family of FPGAs
Xilinx Delivers Unprecedented 1 Million System Gates for Under $12; Entire Spartan-3 Family On-Track for Full-Volume Production Early Next Year, With Four of Eight Family Members Shipping Now
SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Xilinx, Inc. today announced that its investment in the industry's most advanced 90 nanometer* (nm) and 300 millimeter* (mm) chip-making technology is already paying off for customers, with new breakthrough price points for the world's first 90nm family of programmable chips, shipping since March of this year. By continuing to set new price-density standards for field-programmable logic devices (FPGAs), Xilinx is accelerating the company's expansion into the $23 billion** total available market (TAM) for high-volume, low-cost applications traditionally served by custom chips with fixed architectures, such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
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Xilinx is now offering Spartan-3 FPGAs with one million system gates for under $12.00*** and three different Spartan-3 FPGAs for under $6.50.*** Spartan-3 platform devices range from 50K to 5M system gates, with prices starting at $2.95,*** which represents a cost savings of up to 80 percent over competitive offerings. The company's early commitment and investment in 90nm and 300mm manufacturing has resulted in an 80 percent chip-size reduction compared to competitive products on 130nm technology.
Xilinx has rapidly moved down the process technology curve since first shipments of the Spartan-3 family in March, making it possible for the company to quickly pass on the cost-density benefits of 90nm to customers. With strong yields ramping fast, Xilinx is shipping four of eight total members of the Spartan-3 FPGA family and is on-track to deliver the entire Spartan-3 family in full-volume production early next year.
"While skeptics have voiced concerns regarding the industry's ability to meet the 90nm challenge, today's news provides clear evidence that Xilinx has not only met the challenge but exceeded expectations by delivering immediate cost benefits to customers," said Wim Roelandts, chairman and CEO of Xilinx. "We're delighted to count Xilinx among an elite group of companies with the technology acumen to take full advantage of 90nm and 300mm manufacturing this year. As traditional ASIC and ASSP design starts continue to decline, we expect that FPGA design starts using Spartan-3 will ultimately fuel higher growth for PLD makers."
Xilinx: At Finish Line in Semiconductor Industry's Race to 90nm
Xilinx and other leaders such as IBM, Intel, Sony, Texas Instruments and UMC at the finish line in the semiconductor industry race to ship the world's first products based on 90nm process technology. Xilinx and these companies are using advance process technology to further separate themselves from their competition by taking advantage of the greatest cost reductions in recent semiconductor history. Such remarkable economies of scale are possible with next-generation chip-making processes due to increasingly finer geometries, which lead to greater device densities and higher yields.
According to recent public statements, Xilinx is over 12 months ahead of its nearest competitor in delivering 90nm and 300mm technology, giving Xilinx a formidable technology lead and bolstering its position as the world leader in low-cost solutions. Xilinx pioneered the fabless semiconductor business model more than 18 years ago and continues to be at the forefront of the race to advanced manufacturing processes. The company has established an impressive track record of industry firsts -- including first to 150nm in 2001 and first to 130nm in 2002. Currently, the company is also the highest volume purchaser of 300mm wafers in the world.
Spartan-3 FPGAs: ASIC Replacement for High Volume Applications
Spartan-3 FPGAs offer an unprecedented density range for Spartan-class devices -- ranging from 50K to 5M system gates -- enabling customers to reduce overall system costs through integration. With the feature-rich Spartan-3 platform, designers can also take advantage of Spartan-3 FPGAs as a robust, affordable, flexible alternative to traditional custom ASIC designs.
Engineers developing products for the price-sensitive, high-volume electronics market have historically used custom chips with fixed architectures such as ASICs because of their performance and cost advantages. With Spartan-3, Xilinx has dramatically narrowed the price-performance gap between programmable and fixed logic to drive FPGA adoption further into higher volume applications and hasten the decline of ASIC design. Among the many applications Xilinx can now address are low cost routers, storage servers, residential gateways, medical and industrial imaging, video-on-demand services, and consumer entertainment (LCD TVs, HDTV, DVD-RW, etc.), to name a few. In addition, by making programmable technology more affordable and accessible, new types of functionality and features will now be available in a wider range of end products.
Pricing and Availability
The 3S50, 3S200, and 3S400 Spartan-3 devices with 50,000, 200,000, and 400,000 system gates respectively are available for less than $6.50***. The 3S1000 Spartan-3 device with 1 million system gates is also available for under $12.00***. The entire Spartan-3 family will be available in volume production in early 2004 from distributors worldwide, or direct from Xilinx at http://www.xilinx.com/spartan.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit http://www.xilinx.com/.
* 90nm measures the space between the lines of circuitry on a chip and is less than 1/1,000th the width of a human hair. 300mm wafers describe the diameter of the silicon disk used to produce chips. The larger the surface, the more chips that can be produced per wafer.
**Source: iSuppli 1/2003; Dataquest 2/2003
***Pricing in quantities of 250K, end of 2004.
CONTACT: Jennifer Wright, +1-408-879-7727, or cell, +1-408-655-6571, or
jennifer.wright@xilinx.com, or Lisa Washington, +1-408-626-6272, or cell,
+1-408-750-4572, or lisa.washington@xilinx.com, both of Xilinx, Inc.
Web site: http://www.xilinx.com/
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