XILINX 1995 ANNUAL REPORT - Reconfigurability Is Our First Name

Xilinx FPGA product families are reconfigurable, allowing changes to logic functions while they reside in the system. This gives the design engineer a degree of freedom not available with other types of logic. Design updates or modifications are easy. Reprogrammability simplifies hardware design and debugging, and it shortens time-to-volume production.

Reprogrammability can also pay off throughout the product's life cyle. If a company wants to add new features to a current product, it can do so by changing the software, with no hardware impact. Xilinx FPGA's reconfigurable architecture allows for future upgrades to be easily accomplished, thereby extending a product's life cycle.

Our high technology customers are driven by standards that change continually. As new standards emerge, companies must keep pace, but an all-out commitment to a particular standard can be risky. The reprogrammable nature of Xilinx logic devices permits Xilinx users to adapt to new standards. Designs can be easily reconfigured, assuring our customers that they are not spending money on equipment that will rapidly become obsolete.

In fiscal 1996, Xilinx will take reconfigurable FPGA computing a step further by introducing a new wave of technology: systems that incorporate the flexibility of software with the speed of hardware.