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XILINX AND UMC DEVELOP INDUSTRY'S FIRST FPGAs
TO UTILIZE TRIPLE-OXIDE 90nm TECHNOLOGY
New technology used to manufacture Virtex-4
FPGAs expected to cut power consumption in half while significantly
increasing performance over previous generation devices
HSINCHU, Taiwan, and SAN JOSE, Calif., JUNE 14, 2004 - Xilinx,
Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), the world's leading supplier of programmable
logic solutions and inventor of the FPGA, and leading global
semiconductor foundry UMC (NYSE: UMC), today announced production
of the industry's first FPGA products manufactured using 90nm
triple-oxide technology. By using three different thicknesses of
the insulating gate oxide layers, the companies were able to break
the traditional tradeoff between power consumption and performance,
and expect to lower static and dynamic power consumption by 50
percent from previous generation devices with the Virtex-4 platform
FPGA family. Xilinx has already received initial wafers from UMC
using this breakthrough triple-oxide 90nm technology.
"Power management has become a critical requirement of customers,
especially with increased performance, bandwidth and the move to
90nm technology," said Erich Goetting, vice president and general
manager of the Advanced Products Division at Xilinx. "Therefore,
reduced power consumption and increased silicon performance were
both high on the priority list for Virtex-4 development. Working
with UMC, we have leveraged the benefits of triple-oxide technology
on 90nm to break the industry trend of increased power consumption
when moving from 130nm to 90nm. The new Virtex-4 platform FPGAs
will reduce both static and dynamic power consumption by up to 50
percent."
UMC and Xilinx delivered the industry's first 90nm FPGAs in
March of 2003. UMC is now in volume production for various 90nm
products including the Xilinx Spartan-3 family of FPGAs.
Dr. S.W. Sun, senior vice president in charge of UMC's Central
Research and Development, said, "UMC develops technologies that are
targeted for our customer's requirements. For the 90nm node this
includes triple-gate oxide, in which Xilinx has exploited for their
new line of FPGAs. We are pleased to deliver enabling technologies
to help Xilinx achieve their performance targets for the Virtex-4
product line, and look forward to reaching future technology
milestones together."
About Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs
Enabled by the revolutionary Advanced Silicon Modular Block
(ASMBL) architecture, the Virtex-4 product line is the
world's first FPGA family with multiple domain-optimized platforms,
offering breakthrough FPGA capability at every price point. The
initial Virtex-4 family includes three platforms; Virtex-4 LX
optimized for logic-intensive designs, Virtex-4 SX optimized for
very high performance signal processing and Virtex-4 FX for
embedded processing and high-speed serial connectivity. Each
platform will offer a range of device options. With up to 200,000
logic cells and up to 500 MHz performance, the Virtex-4 family
delivers twice the density and up to twice the performance of any
FPGA in the industry currently in production. Initial engineering
samples of the Virtex-4 LX Platform FPGAs will be available in
summer 2004, with SX and FX platforms to follow.
About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor
foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications
spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC
delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable
sophisticated system-on-chip (SoC) designs, including 90nm copper,
0.13um copper, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in
300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based UMCi are
both in volume production for a variety of customer products. UMC
employs over 9,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan,
Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found
on the web at http://www.umc.com.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
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