PR Newswire
Jun 26, 2006 07:30 ET

Xilinx Delivers ISE 8.2i - A Complete Logic Design Solution for the New 65NM Virtex-5 FPGA Family

Newest Release Enables 30% Faster Performance, While Improving Overall Designer Productivity With New Interactive Timing Closure Technology

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) today announced immediate availability of the 8.2i Integrated Software Environment (ISE(TM)) tool suite, the latest release of its widely-used design solution, now supporting the company's newest line of 65nm Virtex(TM)-5 domain-optimized FPGAs. Leveraging the high-performance features of the Virtex-5 ExpressFabric(TM) technology, the ISE 8.2i design environment enables 30 percent faster performance than previous generation FPGAs. The latest release also features a unique integrated timing closure environment and new productivity-enhancing features to fully exploit the performance and power advantages of Virtex-5 devices.

"The ability to meet timing budgets is the number one productivity issue facing designers today. With Virtex FPGAs more often at the heart of complex systems, it is critical that design tools help designers achieve aggressive performance goals while reducing the time spent in the design cycle," said Bruce Talley, vice president of the Design Software Division at Xilinx. "The advanced features and performance of the Virtex-5 family can be quickly and efficiently utilized with ISE 8.2i implementation support, and our new interactive timing closure environment."

"Mercury has used beta versions of the ISE 8.2i release to create bitstreams for Xilinx Virtex-5 devices chips. Even the beta releases have proven to be of high quality. The new tools exploit the Virtex-5 hardware features to increase the productivity of FPGA programmers as high performance is more often obtained with less effort," said Craig Lund, chief technology officer at Mercury Computer Systems.

Performance, Productivity and Powe

The rich feature set of the ISE 8.2i design suite enables designers targeting Virtex-5 devices to meet performance goals with greater certainty and reach design closure in less time.

-- Performance: Builds upon unique ISE Fmax(TM) technology first
introduced with ISE 8.1i to enable industry's fastest logic
performance. The new design suite features next-generation physical
synthesis with critical pre- and post-routing optimization for
Virtex-5 designs. Enhanced routing support for the new ExpressFabric
technology reduces levels of logic and signal delay while packing
designs more efficiently.

-- Productivity: Delivers an improved timing closure environment
offering tighter correlation between logical and physical design
domains. Automated cross-probing between constraint entry, timing
analysis, floorplanning and implementation reports provides greater
visibility and more efficient method for routing and debugging
designs. Integration of Xplorer into the 8.2i design flow provides
designers the ability to automatically explore various settings and
constraints to significantly improve the performance for a given
design. ISE 8.2i support for device models and pin assignments and
the second generation SparseChevron technology in Virtex-5 FPGAs
greatly simplifies PCB design.

-- Power: The new Xpower(TM) Estimator tool ensures accurate power
estimation based on extensive Virtex-5 device characterization, thus
allowing designers to plan for their power budget in advance. Xpower
is available as a free download at www.xilinx.com/power in an
easy-to-use spreadsheet format.

Debug and Verification Options

The ISE 8.2i design suite is accompanied by the release of the ChipScope Pro(TM) 8.2 debug and verification software. Available as an add-on option, the ChipScope Pro 8.2 solution reduces verification cycles by up to 50 percent. Also included is the newest release of the ChipScope Pro Serial IO Toolkit, providing simplified debugging of high-speed serial IO designs for Virtex-4 FX FPGAs.

Pricing and Availability

ISE software delivers programmable logic design solutions to over 300,000 users worldwide with an intuitive, front-to-back design environment for all Xilinx product families, including Virtex-4 and Virtex-5 Platform FPGAs, Spartan(TM)-3 Generation FPGAs, and CoolRunner(TM)-II CPLDs. All versions of ISE 8.2i software packages support Windows(R) 2000 and Windows XP and Linux(R) Red Hat(R) Enterprise 3.0. ISE Foundation also supports Solaris(R) 2.8 and 2.9.

ISE 8.2i Foundation and ChipScope Pro 8.2 configurations are immediately available with prices ranging from US$695 to $2495. Full-featured 60-day evaluation versions can be downloaded from the Xilinx web site at no charge. For more information about the ISE 8.2i software suite, visit www.xilinx.com/ISE.

About Xilinx

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