Diversification is key, Xilinx says: Spartan-IIE targets convergence applications

Electronic News, Nov 19, 2001 by Peter Brown

Continuing its two-year effort to diversify and march into the consumer electronics and convergence markets as one of the semiconductor leaders, Xilinx Inc. will today roll out its Spartan-IIE family based on its Virtex FPGAs.

Xilinx has been making a concerted effort with its Spartan line of FPGAs to diversify its product lines beyond just the traditional programmable logic markets of telecom and datacom. With the Spartan-LIE family of chips, the San Jose-based company is hoping to continue the momentum it has so far gained.

"For our company it's imperative to get into different markets with different growth cycles so that we see a sustained growth for a number of years; and, when a downturn occurs, we can maintain where we are and be set for the next upturn," said Sandeep Vij, VP of marketing at Xilinx. "And while some of the traditional FPGA markets--datacom and telecom--are not set for much growth over the next two years, convergence applications are booming, and we are already there."

According to Vij, the FPGA company is not looking to play in the traditional consumer markets because the company is not really needed in those spaces. "However, give us a market where there are multiple standards and chaos--then we are a perfect fit," Vij said. "If an OEM wants to combine a cell phone with an MP3 player or PDA, where these applications are not so defined and new, this is where we can play and where a lot of our effort is."

And Vij also acknowledged that this is where Xilinx is generating much of its convergence business. Traditionally, second-tier gate array vendors would get the design wins Xilinx is now getting, said Steve Sharp, senior manager of silicon solutions marketing at Xilinx. However, as FPGAs have grown in gate count and as integration has become a fact of life for many OEMs, a programmable offering is now favorable, Sharp said.

"We are seeing a lot of business in the integration segments because OEMs are wanting to differentiate from their competition," Vij said. "One easy way to do that is to stop using gate arrays and go with a programmable solution."

Vij added that as other home appliances, such as refrigerators and washing machines, begin to move toward integration, Xilinx sees itself finding a place to play in those markets as well. According to Gartner Dataquest, the convergence market as a whole is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 3O percent over the next five years. This includes any applications that include digital electronics integrated into another application.

The Spartan-IIE family will feature a density range from 50,000 up to 300,000 system gates and come in several packaging options, including a 208-pin PQFP, 144-pin TQFP and both a 256- and 456-pin FGA. Xilinx said the initial production on the family is available now from distributors worldwide with second half 2002 pricing ranging from $6.95 to $17.95 in 250,000-unit volumes.

Xilinx started to diversify from its traditional market focuses approximately two years ago with the advent of its first Spartan families. Since that time the company has expanded its market in the consumer realm to a point where this market now represents 15 percent of its overall revenue. Since the digital convergence market is one that is a high-volume market, the company needed an inexpensive part that could be rolled out in large OEM unit volumes. It found that with the Spartan family and continues to use that model for the Spartan-IIE. Xilinx forecasts that by 2004, FPGAs going into consumer digital products will generate more than $150 million for the company.