Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA Accelerates Development of Ross Video Multi-Definition Keyer for Digital Broadcast Production Applications

Industry's first multi-channel, open-platform SD/HD video production switch takes advantage of integrated high-speed logic, DSP and on-chip memory of Virtex-5 LXT FPGA

LAS VEGAS, April 14, 2008 -- At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Conference today, Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX), the world's leading programmable logic supplier, announced its Virtex(R)-5 field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) played a key role in the development of the Multi-Definition Keyer (MDK) digital production switch debuted this week by Ross Video Ltd. Virtex-5 FPGAs provided a highly integrated system platform with logic-optimized silicon features, built-in digital signal processing (DSP) building blocks, and ample on-chip memory that enabled Ross Video developers to accelerate time to market of its new MDK system.

Ross Video designs, markets, manufactures, and supports a wide range of innovative products for use in broadcast, distribution, live event and production applications. The company's new offering is the first standard definition/high definition (SD/HD) video MDK implemented on a single industry- standard OpenGear card. Virtex-5 LXT FPGAs were deployed to perform digital video processing in the new MDK system, which is targeted for broadcast television studios. Ross Video will offer live demonstrations of the MDK during NAB, April 14-17 in Booth #SU6010 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Ross Video developers are very familiar with Xilinx solutions, with one or more Xilinx(R) FPGAs 'under the hood' of many of the company's products. "Xilinx has steadily come up with the leading-edge FPGA technologies and ecosystem of IP, tools and support services that can make the difference between realizing a promise and a product," said Mario LeCavalier, senior design engineer at Ross Video Ltd. "They have done it again remarkably well with the feature-to-cost ratio of Virtex-5 LXT devices. The embedded gigabit serial IO allowed us to integrate expensive SD/HD video serializer and deserializer chips inside the FPGA with our new MDK system. Plus, the high count of available hardware multipliers is a blessing for digital video processing."

Higher System Integration, Reduced Development Cycle

Reprogrammability and reconfigurability are the flagship advantages of programmable logic solutions as well as the hallmark features for Ross Video products, including the company's award-winning open-platform line of video and audio rack mount terminal equipment. All of Ross Video's OpenGear offerings are field upgradeable through the industry-standard OpenGear Dashboard graphical user interface software running on a networked PC. With this capability, Ross Video can respond rapidly to broad market changes as well as customer-specific application requirements.

With the introduction of its MDK system to its product portfolio, Ross Video adds an excellent solution for keying external devices such as character generators, graphic systems and EAS devices into a program feed. The MDK offers full key control with shaped and unshaped keying, self key or alpha key, transparency, gain and clip control, mask and matte fill.

In order to achieve the level of system integration required for the new MDK design, Ross Video developers turned to the Virtex-5 LX110T FPGA which offers 64 dedicated DSP blocks delivering 35 GMACS performance, more than 5Mb of on-chip blockRAM and 16 low-power multi-gigabit transceivers (MGT), in addition to a logic capacity of 110K "logic cells". The Virtex-5 LX110T device, in combination with the SD/HD SDI video IP available as part of Xilinx broadcast video solutions, enabled developers to get the gigabit serial IO up and running quickly, so they could focus on their own video processing core.

"The ability to quickly adapt to evolving market requirements and industry standards are key to success in the broadcast marketplace. Not only are these drivers a perfect match for programmable logic, they are the reason why Xilinx solutions enjoy a leadership position in this application domain," said Gregg Hawkes, principal engineer at Xilinx. "Our Virtex-5 LXT FPGAs were the first logic-optimized devices to offer an unprecedented mix of features, flexibility and cost savings. When combined with our application-optimized IP, they provide a system platform with which developers can 'future proof out of the box', a market advantage for which Ross Video products are already well-known and respected."

Xilinx is conducting demonstrations of broadcast solutions including its advanced video development platform (AVDP), connectivity and video over IP applications at this week's NAB in Booth #SU9926 located in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

About Xilinx Virtex-5 Series FPGAs

The Virtex-5 family is the fifth generation in the award-winning Virtex series and is built upon the industry's most advanced 65-nanometer triple- oxide technology, breakthrough ExpressFabric(TM) technology and proven ASMBL(TM) architecture. The Virtex-5 family features four domain-optimized platforms for high-speed logic, digital signal processing, embedded processing and serial connectivity applications. Production devices are shipping now and may be purchased online or through Xilinx distributors. For further cost reductions, the Xilinx EasyPath(TM) program enables customers to use Virtex-5 devices in high-volume applications. Visit www.xilinx.com/virtex5 for more information.

About Xilinx in Broadcast

Xilinx offers a wide array of application-optimized solutions for the broadcast industry that span video, audio and network connectivity; real-time high-definition video processing; and high-speed digital signal processing for transmission and modulation. These solutions feature reference designs and IP cores as building blocks for developing complete broadcast systems. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com/broadcast.

About Xilinx

Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.