Xilinx Announces Free Configurable PCS Reference Design For Use With Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs

Dynamic configurable solution supports multiple protocols
and line rates on the same physical port

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 29, 2004 - Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today announced the immediate availability of a free fully functional Configurable Physical Coding Sublayer (CPCS) reference design for a multi-mode PCS block implemented in Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGAs. The CPCS can be dynamically configured to support three types of PCS layers including Fibre Channel (1.0625 and 2.125 Gbps), Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-X), and ESCON/SBCON (200 Mbps). The CPCS reference design is ideal for applications including Ethernet/Fibre Channel switches, Multi-Service Provisioning Platforms (MSPP), SONET/SDH terminals, Add-Drop Multiplexers (ADM), cross connects, CWDM/DWDM transport equipment, and IP routers.

"Designers using the CPCS reference design can dramatically reduce costs while improving time-to-market," said Amit Dhir, senior manager of Strategic Solutions, Wired Networks and Telecom, at Xilinx. "The reference design enables the sharing of optics and ICs and integrates the RocketIO MGT and PowerPC features of our Virtex-II Pro FPGAs. This provides increased density at each port, with the ability to be re-configured on the fly."

Dynamic protocol selection is fully integrated into the control plane running on the Virtex-II Pro embedded PowerPC 405 processor. The tight coupling of the configurable embedded RocketIO MGTs provide the required serial data rates ranging from 200 Mbps to 2.125 Gbps. This would not be feasible with an external SERDES solution.

Pricing and Availability
The fully documented CPCS reference design is immediately available free of charge. All documentation and design files can be downloaded from the Xilinx website at www.xilinx.com/esp/cpcs.

About Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs
Based on their industry-leading capacity, performance, and cost-effectiveness, Xilinx Virtex™ FPGAs are the number one choice of designers worldwide. The Xilinx Virtex-II Pro is the world's first and only FPGA to offer integrated PowerPC embedded technology. Xilinx has shipped over 100,000 PowerPC cores to its customer base and enabled over 1,400 CoreConnect licenses.

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