Corporate Backgrounder

Introduction

Overview

Xilinx® leads one of the fastest growing segments of the semiconductor industry - Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) - with over 50 percent market share. PLDs represent an exciting growth potential in the chip market thanks to their flexible nature and ability to change functionality even after being manufactured. Gartner Dataquest forecasts the PLD market to grow to $4.5 billion in 2006, $5.2 billion in 2007 and $6.3 billion in 2008. In the larger $16 billion ASIC market (which includes PLDs), Xilinx ranks as the world's second largest supplier.

Unlike traditional semiconductor companies that have a few hundred customers, Xilinx has more than 7,500 customers worldwide and more than 50,000 annual design starts. Today, Xilinx employs almost 3,000 people worldwide. Nearly half of its engineers are dedicated to software development.

Setting the Standard for a Well Managed Company

Xilinx enjoys a stellar corporate reputation. The company has received numerous awards and praise for its corporate policies and management track record. For a complete list of Xilinx awards, please refer to our corporate fact sheet.

Innovation Enabler

Xilinx customers can change or upgrade product features and functions "on the fly" - adapting to new standards and reconfiguring the hardware for a specific application. This "on the fly" technology can be achieved even after the product has been installed in the field, allowing upgrades and design flaw repairs following consumer purchase.

Technology Driver

Xilinx was the first semiconductor company to establish the fabless manufacturing model, outsourcing everything but the design, marketing and support of its products. Based on our success, every semiconductor company founded since has adopted the fabless model. Xilinx' strategic partnership with UMC and Toshiba resulted in the first programmable chip to be produced on the most advanced manufacturing process available (65 nanometer). Xilinx is currently among the largest purchasers of 300mm wafers in the world and is shipping all advanced FPGA product lines on 300mm technology, thus dramatically driving down the cost of FPGAs.

Products and Services

Xilinx High Performance FPGAs

The Xilinx Series is the world's best selling FPGA with over $4 billions in cumulative revenues. Originally introduced in 1998, the Virtex family has propelled Xilinx to its current market leadership position. In May of 2006, Xilinx announced its newest Virtex-5 family of domain-optimized FPGAs, built upon the industry's most advanced 65nm triple-oxide technology, breakthrough new ExpressFabric™ technology and proven ASMBL™ architecture. Key design team innovations in process technology, architecture and product development methodology have led to unprecedented performance and density gains with Virtex-5 FPGAs - at speeds on average 30 percent higher and 65 percent increased capacity over previous generation 90-nm FPGAs - while reducing dynamic power consumption by 35 percent, maintaining the same low static power and consuming 45 percent less area. Devices are shipping now.

Xilinx High Volume FPGAs

In 1998, Xilinx ignited the low cost FPGA revolution with the introduction of the Spartan Series. Today, the Spartan™ Series has been broadly adopted in high-volume applications such as communications, industrial, and consumer devices such as set-top boxes and flat-panel TVs. Over 200 million Spartan Series devices have shipped worldwide, with over $1.9B in cumulative revenue and the current Spartan-3 generation is the highest volume 90nm FPGA. With the recent introduction of its Spartan-3A, Spartan-3AN, and Spartan-3A DSP platforms, Xilinx continues to add domain-optimized Spartan FPGA platforms fully optimized to their application.

Xilinx CPLDs

Xilinx CPLDs are used in a broad range of portable applications including cellular handsets, portable MP3 players and PDAs. Xilinx CoolRunner™-II CPLDs provide the high performance and low cost advantages of a programmable logic device without the typical price premium normally associated with low power devices. Available in densities ranging from 32 to 512 macrocells, the CoolRunner-II family achieves system performance up to 323 MHz and pin-to-pin delays as fast as 3.8ns while providing a standby current as low as 12 µA (micro-Amps) - an industry first.

World-Class Design Tools

At Xilinx, design tools are a key part of the company's focus. Over 50 percent of Xilinx engineers are dedicated to developing leading edge design tools delivering optimal design results within an easy-to-use environment for FPGA enabled applications. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, Xilinx achieved top honors as the premier FPGA-level EDA Tool vendor in an annual survey conducted by Electronic Engineering Times, part of CMP Media LLC. Xilinx earned the highest ranking among respondents, taking the number one slot in all the major categories including customer satisfaction and loyalty for FPGA-level EDA vendors.

IP and Reference Designs

To address the demand for even faster time-to-market, Xilinx offers the industry's broadest set of IP and reference design solutions. These ready-made solutions, available from Xilinx and third-party partners, allows designers to cut design time and significantly reduce risks while having access to the best performing and lowest cost components available.

Education and Design Services

The Xilinx Global Services organization provides customers with education support and design services plus an automated knowledge database on the web. Xilinx Education Services offers customers a variety of options for in-depth training in the company's programmable logic solutions. Courses are offered at the customer's location as well as at Xilinx offices worldwide. Customers also can choose the Xilinx E-Learning system, which provides scheduled live classes over the Web.

Xilinx Design Services augments customer design teams with industry experts in FPGA design techniques and programmable logic solutions such as systems architecture consulting, hardware engineering, and embedded software design. Led by professionals with proven project management skills, the XDS team of FPGA hardware engineers, embedded software designers, product specialists, and system architects help customers get their products to market faster, more cost-effectively, and with optimal performance. More information about Xilinx Design Services is available at www.support.xilinx.com/xds.

Support Services

Xilinx offers online 24-hour design support through its online support.xilinx.com community. The site features an answers database with more than 4,000 unique design tips, techniques and application notes, interactive forums that allow designers to trade information with their peers, and problem solvers that automatically step customers through the debugging process. Xilinx augments these services with a team of more than 300 field application engineers (FAEs) throughout North America, Europe and Asia who provide on-site answers and consulting services for customers. FAEs, both from Xilinx and the company's independent sales organizations, are experts in electronic design. They also offer design evaluation of new projects and close consultation through the design process.

Technology Solutions

Embedded

Xilinx offers a wide range of processing solutions and silicon enables embedded system designers to select the optimum performance and price points for their embedded processing needs. Offering the highest processor performance in any FPGA device, the industry standard PowerPC™ 32-bit core is immersed (hard) in the Virtex™-4 and Virtex-II Pro family of Platform FPGAs. The Xilinx MicroBlaze™ 32-bit soft core is a configurable, general-purpose RISC processor that can be used with both the Spartan™ and Virtex families of FPGAs depending on cost and performance requirements. Targeting the most cost-effective applications is the Xilinx PicoBlaze™ 8-bit microcontroller that can be used with any Xilinx FPGA as well as with Xilinx CoolRunner CPLDs.

To rapidly configure embedded processor solutions, Xilinx provides a common, fully integrated hardware and software development environment with the Platform Studio IDE. The award winning Platform Studio tool suite enables both hardware and software designers to develop platforms targeting PowerPC hard processing or Xilinx MicroBlaze soft processing cores using a single design environment. The common design environment, bus structure and peripherals allow designers to easily select the best processor and peripherals for their application needs without extensive engineering rework or additional learning curve.

To kick-start embedded design, Xilinx provides fully integrated development kits including low cost hardware boards, Embedded and FPGA design tools, a processing IP catalog, debug/download cables, communications cables and pre-verified reference designs. Example systems that work out of the box streamline the development process for both new and experienced users.

DSP

In 2004 Xilinx established its dedicated DSP Division, lead by industry veteran Omid Tahernia. Establishing the DSP Division follows the company's continued push to bring the benefits of FPGAs to high-performance DSP solutions. This began with the introduction of the Virtex family in 1998 and the launch of its Xilinx XtremeDSP™ initiative in 2000.

Under the leadership of the Xilinx DSP Division, the Company's customer-driven strategy is setting a new direction with application-optimized XtremeDSP solutions. Xilinx is initially targeting high-growth digital communications; multimedia, video and imaging (MVI); and defense systems segments, which combined represent more than 80 percent of the high-performance DSP market. The Xilinx® XtremeDSP roadmaps encompass core technologies such as OFDM for the digital communications and defense segments and video codecs for MVI applications needed to deliver pre-packaged, easy-to-use development solutions tailored for each of the target markets. These solutions integrate specialized hardware platforms, system-level application knowledge, software algorithms and intellectual property (IP) libraries, and are supported by robust software tools specifically designed for efficient implementation of DSP algorithms in an FPGA device.

Also key to the Company's DSP strategy is its ongoing collaboration with market leaders Texas Instruments and The MathWorks to address the growing trends toward FPGA-DSP co-processing platforms and tightly integrated tool flows for algorithmic development and design implementation.

End Market Solutions

Aerospace and Defense

Xilinx offers Aerospace and Defense FPGA solutions for high-integrity applications that demand the density and flexibility found only in Xilinx re-programmable FPGAs. For the past 15 years, Xilinx has proven to be the perfect solution to address a wide range of stringent and diverse requirements for military applications. The recently released QPro™ Virtex™-4 family extends Xilinx history of providing leading edge FGPA products designed specifically for Aerospace and Defense. The QPro Virtex-4 products are available in a range of packages designed to meet the environments and size constraints for military and space applications. Key features include partial reconfiguration for software defined radios and 500MHz Xtreme DSP™ slices for blazing DSP performance. Xilinx also offers complete software and design services solutions targeted at next generation Aerospace and Defense applications.

Automotive

The automotive electronics market continues to grow on many levels, especially in the areas of in-car audio, infotainment systems and driver information systems. With the introduction of the XA product line in Fall 2004, Xilinx became the only PLD Supplier to achieve full compliance and certification to ISO 9001, TL 9000, ISO 14001 and ISO/TS 16949. Xilinx also delivers Pb-free packaging to meet the RoHS directive. Xilinx also helps drive automotive device quality as an active member of the Automotive Electronics Council, the steering committee that defined the AEC-Q100 standard. Xilinx XA families of FPGAs and CPLDs, as well as automotive specific IP cores are able to address many of the design challenges rampant in automotive electronics applications. The XA devices include both I-Grade (-40C to 100C Tj) and Q-Grade (-40C to 125C Tj) device offerings, enabling operation over the extended temperature range required by the automotive industry. Xilinx with its partners also offers complete IP solutions and boards to speed customer development.

Consumer

Xilinx devices are increasingly being used in a wide variety of consumer applications. This trend is expected to continue as more consumer designs use Spartan-3 family FPGA devices and CoolRunner-II CPLD devices to derive the multiple benefits of these low cost programmable devices in their systems. Xilinx is accelerating the adoption of these devices by offering targeted intellectual property (IP) solutions along with development and demonstration platforms where designers can actually witness the benefits of Xilinx PLDs in consumer applications without having to expend any engineering effort or incur expenses developing validation platforms.

Audio/Video/Broadcast

Xilinx devices are widely used in a variety of professional broadcast equipment right across the chain from camera to display. These range from news gathering equipment, production switchers and non-linear editors to H.264 encoders, modulators and even to set-top boxes and flat panel displays at the consumer. The combination of logic, memory, microprocessors, DSP and high-speed serial I/O capabilities available makes our FPGAs ideal for real-time video processing at high-definition and digital cinema resolutions, as well as supporting interfaces to all kinds of current and emerging broadcast video and audio connectivity standards, such as SD/HD-SDI, DVB-ASI and AES3. In addition, Xilinx and our partners provides a wide range of IP cores and reference designs including filters for video scaling, deinterlacing, picture enhancement and noise reduction, codecs, forward error correction and cryptography. By having such a wide range of related solutions combined with hardware, software, support and services, Xilinx devices will continue to be a key enabler in the transition to HD, the move to IP-based broadcasting in triple- and quad-play markets, and providing a flexible platform for the development of new and emerging algorithmic techniques and standards. FPGAs are used at the leading edge of video research and development and are widely deployed in professional audio, broadcast and image processing applications. On the high end, Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs provide the ideal solution for high-performance applications while the Xilinx Spartan-3 devices are ideal for high-volume applications such as plasma displays, LCD, HDTV, projectors and personal video recorders.

Industrial/Scientific/Medical

Xilinx programmable logic devices and intellectual property (IP) are used throughout the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) markets. Xilinx offers a broad range of market-specific solutions for focused ISM applications: from industrial networking and motor/motion control to machine-vision and medical imaging. Whether your application requires advanced FPGAs, high-performance DSP and powerful processors or low-cost CPLDs, Xilinx programmable logic solutions consisting of software, silicon and service empowers your designs for faster time-to-market, flexible product life-cycle management and longer product life. Solutions are used throughout the industrial, scientific and medical markets. Xilinx offers a broad range of solutions for everything from industrial control to medical imaging. Whether your design requires low-cost CPLDs or high-performance FPGAs, Xilinx offers a whole host of solutions to enable next-generation industrial, scientific or medical applications including low-cost CPLDs and high performance FPGAs.

Wired Communications

Through increased density, features and performance, the role of Xilinx FPGAs in networking and telecom systems has expanded beyond bridging logic between various ASSPs, ASICs, memory, and processors to address an expanded range of key functions and applications. Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs provide the increased logic densities and powerful embedded features, such as multi-gigabit transceivers, DSP and microprocessors, required to realize the practical implementation of a fully programmable line card. Through the use of powerful system level IP blocks in conjunction with these silicon platforms, designers can easily and cost effectively implement functions spanning the Physical layer (PHY) to the network layer, functions which were once only addressed by ASICs and ASSPs.

Wireless Communications

Xilinx has been the leading supplier of programmable solutions to the wireless infrastructure market for many years. Xilinx products have been utilized in base station equipment since the earliest phases of GSM and IS-95a CDMAone development. Xilinx has a proven heritage of industry leading DSP solution capabilities which has been enhanced by the development of the incredibly powerful XtremeDSP slice architecture. Our latest Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA devices provide the performance needed to meet the speed and flexibility demands of the complex algorithms used in the latest wireless standards. The phenomenal processing power comes at a decreased cost, allowing equipment vendors to economically meet increasing technical requirements.

*Based on 500K unit volume, second half 2006, -4 speed grade, commercial temperature, lowest cost package option.

Management

Willem “Wim” Roelandts, Since January 1996, Willem P. "Wim" Roelandts has served at the helm of Xilinx as President and CEO. In August 2003, he assumed the position of Chairman of the Board. Under Roelandts' leadership, Xilinx has grown to $1.7 billion, significantly expanding its business globally and diversifying into higher volume consumer markets. Today, the company commands more than 50 percent market segment share in the programmable logic device (PLD) market and ranks as one of the world's top five ASIC/PLD vendors, second only to IBM (Source: iSuppli, 2005).
Since 2004, Roelandts has served on the Board of Directors of Applied Materials. For more than four years, Roelandts served as Chairman of the Board of the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), where he played an instrumental role in the organization's growth and global expansion. During his tenure through 2005, FSA membership grew to nearly 500 and the organization expanded its reach the into Asia and Europe. Roelandts was named President and CEO of Xilinx after a 30-year career in management at Hewlett-Packard Co. Prior to joining Xilinx, he served as senior vice president and was responsible for all aspects of HP's then $6 billion worldwide computer systems business, including research and development, manufacturing, marketing, professional services and sales. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rijks Hogere Technische School in Anderlecht, Belgium, in 1965.

Shelly Begun, vice president of worldwide human resources.  Begun is responsible for worldwide staffing, employee relations, training, organizational development, compensation and benefits. Begun joined Xilinx in 2003 as senior director of human resources, with responsibility for supporting corporate and divisional organizations worldwide. Prior to Xilinx, Begun served as vice president of human resources for Actel Corp., Calico Commerce, Inc. and Simplex Solutions, respectively. Begun started her career in human resources at Synertek, a subsidiary of Honeywell, followed by Intel Corp.

Ivo Bolsens, vice president and chief technology officer (CTO), joined Xilinx in 2001 and is responsible for identifying Xilinx technologies and talent as well as heading up the Xilinx Research Laboratories, which focuses on advanced research in the area of programmable logic. Bolsens comes from the Belgium-based research center IMEC, where he was for 17 years, serving as vice president of information and communication systems. Since 1999, he was also professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Bolsens earned his master's degree in electrical engineering and his Ph.D. in applied science from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He is author and co-author of more than 100 papers in the field of VLSI design, CAD, embedded system design and wireless communication and is also co-author of the book, "High Level Synthesis for Real Time Digital Signal Processing."

Kevin Cooney, vice president and chief information officer (CIO) for Xilinx, with responsibility for the company's scaleable, global IT applications and technical environment. He is also a member of the board of directors for Xilinx Ireland. Prior to assuming the CIO post, Mr. Cooney served as Xilinx senior director of information technology (IT) and business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He brings more than 20 years of experience to his position, including a variety of executive posts with Digital Equipment Corp. in both software and hardware. He possesses diplomas in business management and information systems.

Patrick Little, vice president of worldwide sales and support at Xilinx.  In this role, he oversees Xilinx’ worldwide sales and support operations which includes field sales personnel, independent manufacturer’s representatives, and distributor partners. Prior to his current role, Little served as vice president and general manager of the Xilinx CPLD division, overseeing all aspects of CPLD business strategy, product development and operations. Little has over 20 years of operating experience in the semiconductor and consumer industries and was most recently president and CEO of Believe, Inc., a computer graphics imaging company he founded with the top-ranked venture firm, Crosspoint Venture Partners. Previously, he was executive vice president of sales and marketing at Rendition, Inc., a graphics IC company acquired by Micron Technology, Inc. Little also served as general manager of the consumer audio division at Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc., and has held various management positions at Trident Microsystems, Inc. and Opti, Inc. He began his career as a logic design engineer at Wyse Technology, Inc. Little holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from San Jose State University.

Paul McCambridge, vice president, Xilinx Ireland, is responsible for the company's Dublin facility, including operations, customer service, software verification, human resources, I.T. and finance. In addition, he is responsible for Xilinx Development Corporation in Edinburgh, Scotland. McCambridge joined Xilinx in November 1994 as director of operations for Xilinx Ireland as was instrumental in helping to launch the facility. Before joining Xilinx, McCambridge served for four years as a product line manager for Harris Semiconductor in New Jersey. Earlier, he spent 12 years with General Electric Semiconductor Division in Ireland where he worked in a variety of engineering, marketing and operations positions. McCambridge holds a bachelor's degree in electronics from Queens University in Belfast and a master's degree in industrial engineering from University College in Dublin.

Iain Morris, executive vice president and general manager of the Advanced Platforms Group (APG). At the helm of APG, Morris leads divisional teams responsible for development and delivery of high-end solutions, building upon the company's flagship Virtex™ FPGA platform. Morris joined Xilinx in 2006, bringing more than 30 years' experience with semiconductor and systems companies, managing operations in more than 11 countries and serving customers in a variety of vertical markets such as communications, computing and wireless. Most recently, Morris was senior vice president with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), with responsibility for the digital media and pervasive computing group. Before joining AMD, Morris served as senior executive and corporate officer at Hewlett-Packard Co., where he was senior vice president of mobility and emerging business and president of embedded and personal systems, respectively. Morris began his career at Motorola, where he spent nearly 25 years establishing a strong track record of results in engineering, product development, marketing, direct sales and business management. Morris holds a bachelor's of science degree in technology and business studies from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Jon Olson, chief financial officer at Xilinx, with responsibility for finance, tax, treasury and investor relations. Olson joined the company in 2005, bringing more than 25 years of financial management expertise to his position, most recently as Vice President of Finance and Enterprise Services, Director of Finance at Intel Corporation. Starting in 1979, Olson held a variety of senior financial positions at Intel, including vice president, finance and enterprise services; director of finance; technology and manufacturing group controller; semiconductor products group controller; and system manufacturing group controller. Before that, he worked for four years at General Signal Corporation. Olson is a native of Illinois and earned a B.S in Accounting from Indiana University and an MBA in Finance from Santa Clara University.

Boon C. Ooi, vice president of worldwide operations at Xilinx. He is responsible for all aspects of worldwide manufacturing, including supply chain and supplier relationships, product testing and packaging. Ooi brings more than 25 years experience at Intel Corp. to his position, most recently as vice president of the corporate technology group, and director of operations. Over the course of his 26-year career at Intel, Ooi led large, worldwide plant operations and managed supply chain processes, inventory controls and contract electronic manufacturers. Upon joining the company in 1976, Ooi was stationed overseas for ten years, with responsibility for various operational assignments, including assembly operations manager, plant manager and general manager. In 1986, Ooi moved to the United States, where he served as assistant general manager of Logic Components Manufacturing, director of Component Planning, and plant manager for A4/T11 in Chandler, Arizona. As plant manager, he was responsible for the start-up and establishment of C4 as a volume assembly and test factory for Intel. In 1990, he served as general manager for worldwide systems manufacturing, with plants in Puerto Rico, Ireland, Washington, Malaysia and Oregon. Prior to joining Intel, he worked as materials manager for Litronix in Malaysia. Ooi earned his Affiliate from Chartered Management Accountants, in the UL in 1978 and his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix, Ariz., in 1992. He also completed a Stanford executive development program in 1993.

Vincent Tong, vice president, Worldwide Quality and Reliability Engineering
Vincent Tong is vice president of worldwide quality and reliability engineering at Xilinx. He is responsible for all aspects of quality assurance across all Xilinx programmable solutions and reliability engineering of all product manufacturing technologies. Tong's job one is to provide customers with flawless experience in every interaction they have with Xilinx. He oversees the corporate quality methodology for the design, manufacture, training, measurement, and post sale customer support of all Xilinx products. Tong leads a global team to direct all FPGA/CPLD new product introductions as well as quality improvement and cost reduction initiatives. He also manages advanced technology partnerships with wafer foundries, subcontractors and other key technology suppliers. Tong has over 20 years of semiconductor experience in product development, design, manufacturing and quality engineering of programmable logic devices. Most recently, he was the vice president of Product Technology Division at Xilinx overseeing the engineering teams responsible for test development, package and assembly R&D, performance enhancement, yield improvement, product engineering and customer support. He joined Xilinx in 1990 after holding a number of development, design, fab technology, product and test engineering positions at Monolithic Memories and Advanced Micro Devices. Tong holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. He also completed an executive development program from Stanford Business School in 1996. Tong holds 7 U.S. patents.

Sandeep Vij, vice president of worldwide marketing, is responsible for all aspects of Xilinx worldwide marketing activities across all divisions, products, end markets, partners, channels and geographies. During Vij's tenure, Xilinx has launched some of its most successful products including its Virtex Platform FPGAs, cost optimized Spartan FPGAs, and low power Real Digital CoolRunner CPLDs. To accelerate customer time-to-knowledge and adoption of programmable technology, Vij pioneered the company's innovative mega events including the Terabit Networking Forum, Home Networking Industry Forum, and Programmable World. From 1997-2001, he was vice-president and general manager of the General Products Division at Xilinx where he had profit and loss responsibility for the company's cost-optimized Spartan Series FPGAs. In that capacity, Vij was responsible for all aspects of chip design, product engineering, product planning, manufacturing and fabrication strategy, and business management. Vij joined Xilinx in 1996 as Director of FPGA marketing responsible for all aspects of marketing Xilinx's FPGA products. From 1990-1996, Vij held a variety of marketing positions within Altera Corporation. From 1987-1990, he held engineering positions with GE and is a graduate of their Edison Engineering Program. 

Headquarters
2100 Logic Drive
San Jose, CA 95124
Main Tel (408)559-7778 or (800) 4XILINX

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