New division to enhance, broaden FPGA industry's leading DSP offering
SAN JOSE, Calif., September 6, 2004 - In a move that underscores the programmable logic leader's commitment to the DSP market, Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today announced the creation of a dedicated DSP Division. Omid Tahernia, a well-known Motorola veteran of more than 20 years with extensive experience and 13 patents in wireless and mobile systems development, will serve as vice president and general manager of the new division.
As a member of the Xilinx executive management team, Tahernia will lead the DSP Division's technology and business strategy to broaden the reach of Xilinx FPGAs into a $2 billion signal processing segment currently not served by DSP processors. This segment has traditionally been the domain of ASICs and ASSPs, but now represents a tremendous opportunity for Xilinx with FPGAs being used as co-processors along with traditional DSPs. Tahernia will be responsible for developing next-generation Xilinx DSP solutions, including the intellectual property, software tools and design methodologies that allow DSP designers to leverage the high performance-price advantages of Xilinx FPGAs. His charter will also include building strategic alliances with industry leaders to further strengthen the company's robust solutions.
"The DSP landscape for Xilinx is evolving with dramatic advancements in our silicon and tools, coupled with the high performance, flexibility and integration benefits inherent with FPGAs," said Wim Roelandts, president and CEO of Xilinx. "Tahernia is the kind of visionary leader and proven performer we need to move Xilinx's DSP team and business forward. His DSP domain and end market expertise will be extremely valuable in developing high performance DSP solutions targeted at wireless, video and imaging, and aerospace and defense applications."
"FPGAs offer a compelling value proposition and significant technology advantages for high performance DSP applications. Based on the strengths of its platform FPGAs with dedicated DSP features, Xilinx has fast become the FPGA industry's leader in the DSP market," said Tahernia. "I look forward to leveraging my experience at Xilinx, as we execute on a leadership strategy for further expanding the company's role in the DSP marketplace."
Tahernia, 44, joins Xilinx from Motorola where he served in a variety of leadership positions in the semiconductor and equipment segments for the past 21 years. His recent assignments at Motorola Semiconductor included vice president and general manager of the Wireless and Mobile Systems Division driving chipset platforms including baseband processors and vice president and director of worldwide strategy and business development for the Wireless group. Previously, Tahernia held various management positions in Motorola's Paging Division.
Tahernia holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Xilinx XtremeDSP Initiative
Today's announcement reinforces the push by Xilinx to bring the benefits of FPGAs to high-performance DSP solutions with the introduction of the Virtex family in 1998 and the launch of its Xilinx XtremeDSP initiative in 2000. These efforts have since expanded the proven track record of success and industry milestones upon which the new DSP Division will build. These include:
- First DSP domain-optimized Platform FPGAs with next-generation Virtex-4 family
- First Platform FPGAs with dedicated DSP features in Virtex -II and Virtex-II Pro FPGAs
- First FPGAs supporting DSP MAC functions in Virtex family
- First to market with proven DSP design methodologies through strategic collaboration with The MathWorks
- Extensive library of proven DSP IP cores and advanced development boards to accelerate the design cycle and maximize performance.
- Wealth of design resources including design services, dedicated field specialists, and DSP education classes.
.About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit
www.xilinx.com.
