The new RISC applications for Xilinx's FPGAs sound pretty darn impressive and marketable. I've also heard that overall demand was strong for Q4, including Japan...likely due to end-product export boosts for currency reasons.
Xilinx and T7L Technology Jointly Announce Complete FPGA-Based RISC Processor Solutions; 26 Cores Plus Complete Development Environment Now Available Through AllianceCORE Program
BusinessWire, Monday, December 15, 1997 at 08:06
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 1997--Xilinx Inc.
the world's leading supplier of programmable logic, and T7L
Technology, a leading supplier of synthesizable CPU cores, today
announced the TX400 family of RISC CPU cores that have been optimized
specifically for Xilinx XC4000 FPGAs.
Also available is a complete suite of development tools including
a Xilinx FPGA-based hardware development board, and an integrated
suite of software tools.
Based on a proprietary, scaleable RISC architecture, T7L offers
26 variations of the TX400 CPU core. Each has been optimized for
specific system requirements ranging from simple 8-bit
microcontrollers to powerful 32-bit processors for embedded and
digital signal processing applications.
"In the past, it was difficult for FPGA users to implement a CPU
core in a single FPGA due to limited capacity," said Terence Lo,
T7L's vice president of marketing. "This is no longer a problem with
the gate capacities available with the Xilinx XC4000XL and XV
devices. In addition, we designed our cores to take advantage of
Xilinx architectural features, such as the distributed Select-RAM
feature, thereby ensuring high performance while using minimal
resources. This is the pioneer CPU core family dedicated to FPGA
applications."
The TX400 family is built around a three-stage, fully balanced
pipeline engine with separate 8- to 32-bit data and 10- to 24-bit
instruction buses. A flexible and selectable instruction set can be
extracted from a supplied master function library. Parameter driven
configurable design allows fast and easy customization. The cores
are delivered in Xilinx optimized netlist or VHDL source code
formats.
The CPU design uses a function-generator based logic structure
that has been fully optimized for the Xilinx FPGA architecture. A
free 8-bit evaluation version is available to download from
www.t7l.com . Customers with a Foundation or Alliance Series
software can evaluate this core in a Xilinx FPGA.
"Once again, the Xilinx architecture proves to be the preferred
delivery platform for programmable logic cores," said Rich Sevcik,
Xilinx senior vice president of software. "The new T7L solution
helps fill a need for truly optimized, high performance processor
cores in our CORE Solutions product portfolio."
T7L prices its core products, which serve as the "brain" and
provide flexibility and reconfigurability, from US$4,000 to
US$100,000, varying on complexity and support required. A lower
entry point will benefit all Xilinx users in various industries:
telecommunication, equipment, peripheral and consumer electronics
products. Included with the price of each core is a complete
software development environment with an integrated windows-based
project manager, assembler, source code editor, object file linker,
debugger, and vector generator.
A C compiler will be available in the first quarter of 1998. T7L
also supplies a Xilinx-based hardware development board that allows
customers to test the cores, develop, and debug code in an XC4010E
FPGA device. An optional daughter card allows the use of larger
FPGAs. The board is available for $295.
About T7L Technology and Xilinx
Founded in 1997, T7L Technology delivers the most economical CPU
core solution for the FPGA market. T7L products support industry
standard design language (VHDL) and runs on popular computer
platforms (Windows95 and up). The company is located at 220, Duncan
Mill Rd., Suite 307, North York, Ontario, Canada, M3B 3J5 and 780,
Charcot Ave., San Jose, Calif., USA 95131. Phone: 416/445-4783, Fax:
416/445-5741, email: t7linfo@t7l.com, web: t7l.com .
Founded in 1984, Xilinx is the world's largest supplier of
programmable logic solutions producing industry-leading device
architecture and world class design software. Headquartered in San
Jose, Calif., the company pioneered the market for field programmable
gate array (FPGA) semiconductor devices that provide high integration
and quick time-to-market for electronic equipment manufactures in the
computer, peripheral, telecommunications, networking, industrial
control, instrumentation, consumer, and high reliability/military
markets. For more information on Xilinx, access www.xilinx.com .
Note to editors: Xilinx is a registered trademark of Xilinx Inc.
All XC-prefix product designations, SelectRAM, and AllianceCORE are
trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. S-CPU is the product of T7L Technology.
All other brands or product names are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Xilinx Inc.
Ann Duft, 408/879-4726
publicrelations@xilinx.com
or
T7L Technology
Phyllis Ho, 416/445-4783
t7linfo@t7l.com
or
Oak Ridge Public Relations
Kathy Keller, 408/253-5042
kathy.keller@oakridge.com |
