SAN DIEGO, Calif., April 30, 2001—Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) together with AMCC (NASDAQ: AMCC) today announced the immediate availability of the Flexbus 4™ cores, providing 10 gigabit per second bandwidth and multi-service flexibility to support emerging metro optical networks.  As part of the Xilinx Platform FPGA initiative, the cores provide system architects with the capability to design Flexbus 4-based core and edge switch router solutions.  The cores are compatible with AMCC’s leading-edge application specific standard products (ASSPs) at OC-192 and 10 gigabit per second data rates and are compliant with the Optical Internetworking Forum’s (OIF) SPI-4 Phase 1 and AMCC’s Flexbus 4 specifications.  

“With the introduction of the Flexbus 4 FPGA core, customers can now rapidly develop line cards that support a mixture of protocols and map them into the SONET payload for high-performance metro optical networks," said John LoMedico, vice-president of marketing for AMCC’s Digital Products Division. “The cores provide the bandwidth and flexibility necessary to build the Internet of the next generation and handle the surge of increasing networking traffic."  

“Solving the ever increasing complexity and performance requirements of the terabit era, these cores allow Virtex™-II FPGAs to interface with AMCC framer and mapper products as well as other leading standards-based OC-192 ASSP devices,” said Rich Sevcik, senior vice president of the IP, Software and Services Division at Xilinx.  “The Flexbus 4 core coupled with our customer’s FPGA-based logic and AMCC’s hardware proven OC-192 solutions provide significant time-to-market advantages over ASICs.” 

First to market with the SPI-4 Phase 1 interface in Q2 2000 with the Ganges OC-192 framer IC, AMCC will continue to develop standards-based interfaces for its framer and mapper product line at 2.5 Gbps, 10 Gbps and higher speeds.   AMCC, as a driving member in the OIF, has made significant technical contributions in defining future standards.  For example, Flexbus 4 is known as the OIF System Packet Interface Level 4 Phase 1 (OIF-SPI4-01.0) implementation agreement.  As a principal member of the OIF, Xilinx has worked to define future standards and ensure interoperable FPGA interfaces. Xilinx FPGAs play a critical role in bridging interfaces between framer circuits and higher layer devices, such as network processors.

SystemIO Interfaces
The availability of the Flexbus 4 cores marks another in a series of ultra-fast system interfaces Xilinx is releasing through the SystemIO™ portion of the Platform FPGA initiative.   SystemIO interfaces provide high-performance interconnect technologies for Virtex-II FPGAs. Xilinx FPGAs are critical components in communications equipment because of their flexibility in bridging emerging interface standards, including compliance with Flexbus 4, Hyper Transport™, PCI 64/66, PCI-X133, SPI3 and SPI4, and RapidIO™ parallel bus interfaces

License price and availability
The Flexbus 4 cores are available now for purchase as Xilinx LogiCORE™ products and are optimized for Virtex-II devices and design tools. Pricing for the core is $14,995. Xilinx delivers these LogiCORE products using the Xilinx CORE Generator™ tool to smoothly integrate the cores into the Xilinx design flow. Licensing information and instructions for downloading the cores as well as all information on Xilinx LogiCORE products can be found at the Xilinx IP Center at www.xilinx.com/ipcenter. The cores were developed in cooperation with ModelWare, Inc. a developer of virtual components for telecommunications functions.

About Xilinx 
Xilinx is the leading innovator of complete programmable logic solutions, including advanced integrated circuits, software design tools, predefined system functions delivered as cores, and unparalleled field engineering support. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Xilinx invented the field programmable gate array (FPGA) and fulfills more than half of the world demand for these devices today. Xilinx solutions enable customers to reduce significantly the time required to develop products for the computer, peripheral, telecommunications, networking, industrial control, instrumentation, high-reliability/military, and consumer markets. For more information, visit the Xilinx web site at http://www.xilinx.com. 

About AMCC 
AMCC designs, develops, manufactures, and markets high-performance, high-bandwidth silicon solutions for the world's optical networks.  AMCC utilizes a combination of high-frequency analog, mixed-signal and digital design expertise coupled with system-level knowledge and multiple silicon process technologies to offer integrated circuit products that enable the transport of voice and data over fiber optic networks.  The company's system solution portfolio includes PMD, PHY, framer/mapper, network processor, traffic management and switch fabric devices that address the high-performance needs of the evolving intelligent optical network.  AMCC's corporate headquarters and wafer fabrication facilities are located in San Diego, California.  Sales and engineering offices are located throughout the world.