Shrinking FPGAs increase consumer appeal

Small-form-factor FPGAs address industry demand for smaller footprint packages, enabling extremely cost-sensitive consumer electronics designs.

Xilinx has unveiled its latest 90nm low-cost Spartan-3A FPGAs.

Optimised for use in applications such as digital displays, set top boxes and wireless routers, the new small-form-factor devices address industry demand for smaller footprint packages, enabling extremely cost-sensitive consumer electronic designs.

Xilinx success in targeting high-volume consumer applications is based largely on the flexibility and cost advantages of its Spartan series, which has grown from zero to over 25% of company revenue since its 1998 introduction.

With support for the industry's widest range of I/O standards (26), unique power configuration capabilities and anti-cloning security advantages, Xilinx Spartan-3 generation are the worlds most widely adopted low-cost FPGAs with over US $2 billion in cumulative revenue.

"Xilinx is providing customised solutions designed to meet the needs of targeted high-growth market segments and applications", says Jordan Selburn, Principal Analyst of Semiconductor Design for iSuppli, a leading market research firm.

"By affording consumer application designers with turnkey solutions including silicon, IP and development boards, the company should be poised for further growth in this highly competitive market".

By providing the industry's broadest offering of device package options, most comprehensive IP library (8x) and vast selection of turnkey development boards, Xilinx complete solutions eliminate the need for additional standard board components, thus reducing overall system cost by up to 50% as compared with competitive FPGAs.

Eliminating external components also provides increased system reliability.

Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGAs provide the industry's leading power management solution with built-dual power management modes, enabling instant power savings and eliminating the need for external components such as regulators, heatsinks, buffers etc.

Xilinx Spartan-3A devices provide up to 40% static power reduction in suspend mode and up to 99% in hibernate mode.

The suspend mode cuts the quiescent current to a minimum state while retaining all information within the FPGA.

This mode offers quick wake up time and system level synchronisation with an awake pin to indicate status, and programmable timers to delay internal and output wake up until the system is ready.

Hibernate mode uses the lowest possible quiescent power (virtually 0mA) with its unique ability to completely power off.

Xilinx Spartan-3A and 3AN devices offer a unique DeviceDNA serial number.

This permanent ID code safeguards hardware and software IP, providing designers with the flexibility to implement custom algorithms that enable authentication, deter cloning, and control IP activation.

Similar to an ATM transaction, the active value generated from the card plus pin combination is compared with a stored number that authorises or rejects the transaction.

Xilinx is introducing four new Spartan-3A small profile devices.

Engineering samples of all four devices are available now.

At customer production timeframes in 2008, the XC3S50A and XC3S200A, available in VQ100 packaging will be priced below US $1.50 and $3.00, respectively.

The XC3S700A and XC3S1400A, available in FT256 packaging are priced below $6.00 and $9.00 respectively.

All pricing is based on 100,000-unit volumes.

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