Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGAs Deliver 32-Bit MicroBlaze Soft Processor for Less Than 75 Cents

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Representing a major milestone in the embedded processing space, Xilinx, Inc.  today announced new price points for its 32-bit and 8-bit embedded soft processing solutions. Designers can now implement Xilinx's 32-bit MicroBlaze soft processor in a Spartan-3 XC3S1000 device for an effective price of $0.73*. Additionally, designers can implement Xilinx's 8-bit PicoBlaze soft processor in the same device for an effective price of $0.13*. With these new price points, Xilinx soft processor solutions provide customers with significant cost savings compared to most discrete 32-bit/8-bit processors available today.

Xilinx attributes today's news to its successful implementation of 90nm technology, resulting in new breakthrough price points for its Spartan-3 family. Xilinx first shipped the Spartan-3 family in March 2003, enabling the company to quickly pass on the cost-density benefits of the 90nm node to customers. Xilinx now offers Spartan-3 FPGAs with 1 million system gates for under $12.00*, 50 thousand system gates for $2.95*, and ten different device-package combinations for under $10.00*.

The Spartan-3 family is the only low-cost FPGA with built-in Multipliers and Block RAM for embedded system solutions. With three times the Block RAM than any FPGA in its class and integrated hardware multipliers to enhance multiplication performance of the soft processor, Xilinx is further reducing the effective cost of designing embedded solutions. Additionally, with an architecture optimized for 90nm technology, Xilinx has packed more logic cells onto a smaller die resulting in up to 36% cost per logic cells advantage over competing solutions.

"Through the combination of low prices and a full feature-set, Xilinx is providing designers with FPGA-based embedded processing solutions at never before seen pricing," said Kapil Shankar, senior director of marketing & applications for the General Products Division at Xilinx. "No other low-cost FPGA offers Multipliers and as much Block RAM as the Spartan-3 family. Embedding a high-speed processor into an FPGA requires sufficient and dedicated functionality to effectively meet system requirements while reducing overall costs."

The MicroBlaze soft processor combined with soft peripherals and logic, can address many traditional 16 and 32-bit microprocessor and microcontroller applications including control instrumentation, test and measurement, automotive and high-end consumer. The free PicoBlaze soft processor can be used as a simple microcontroller in various applications. To date, over 32,000 registered users are using Xilinx embedded processing solutions.

Providing Customers with More Features for Less Cost
Spartan-3 FPGAs offer more density and features in its class to allow customers to reduce overall system costs through integration. Spartan-3 FPGAs offer a combination of highest embedded block and distributed RAM and up to 784 I/Os. Spartan-3 devices offer embedded XtremeDSP functionality with dedicated 18x18 multipliers and up to 330 billion multiply and accumulates (MACs) per second. Additionally, Spartan-3 devices support 23 leading parallel I/O, including PCI 32/33 and PCI 64/33, as well as other popular parallel connectivity cores for telecommunications and networking.

Pricing
The 3S50, 3S200, and 3S400 Spartan-3 devices with 50,000, 200,000, and 400,000 system gates respectively, sells for less than $6.50*. The 3S1000 Spartan-3 device with 1 million system gates also sells 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 www.xilinx.com/spartan.

About Xilinx
Xilinx, Inc. is the worldwide leader of programmable logic and programmable system solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at www.xilinx.com.

based on volume pricing for 250K units, 2004