Xilinx expects the new IQ series of products to expand its penetration into the multi-billion dollar telematics market. "Our move into the automotive telematics sector seemed a natural step for us and supports our overall market diversification strategy," said Sandeep Vij, vice president of worldwide marketing at Xilinx. "Market researchers predict a telematics hardware revenue growth from $3.1B in 2000 to $18.1B in 2005, a CAGR of 42.6%. Our new IQ solutions will help us further penetrate the next wave of automotive infotainment systems."

The new IQ solutions not only provide faster time-to-market for vehicle manufacturers, consumers will benefit from the reconfigurable nature of the chips as well. New functions can be added by simply dialing up the dealership and purchasing an upgrade over the phone and can be sent via a mobile phone link to reconfigure the in-car system. Automotive dealerships can offer these value-added services with little overhead long after the car has been sold. Xilinx devices provide vehicle manufacturers with the time-to-market advantages enjoyed by the consumer product manufacturers for many years.

Manufacturers can stock one general purpose device in lieu of many application specific parts, thus reducing inventory overhead. And because the chips are reprogrammable at any point throughout the design cycle, automotive engineers can quickly and easily integrate the latest entertainment and navigation systems.

Xilinx Telematic Solutions Already on the Road

"Automotive systems, especially in the aftermarket, are changing very rapidly, both in terms of the market and the applicable standards," said Beate Wiessner, chief marketing officer at Siemens VDO Trading GmbH . "In-car entertainment systems are being driven by demands for extra information, more powerful communication features and more extensive controls, integrated with traditional radio and cassette or CD features. The flexibility of Xilinx technology allows us to upgrade as necessary so that our leading edge products like the VDO Dayton MP3 car radio CD4802 can offer a multitude of intelligent features."

"Xilinx provided a low-cost, high-performance alternative to ASICs for our automotive telematics design," said Bart Plackle, product manager at ACUNIA Embedded Solutions. "The flexible nature of Xilinx FPGAs helped us to create XINGU, a high performing processing solution that offers the unique functionality of being remotely upgraded, thereby meeting the stringent requirements of the telematics domain."

About the Xilinx IQ Product Range

The initial product offering includes a full range of CPLD and FPGA programmable solutions characterized for operation from -40ºC up to 125ºC chip temperatures. By combining the latest IQ silicon product offering with the Xilinx solutions infrastructure of productivity software, IP Cores, design services and customer education, telematic designers can meet time-to-market pressures and address the existing technology knowledge gap.

Lead Free Packaging

This is a market segment that Xilinx has been pursuing for some time with its Spartan XL FPGAs and XC9500XL CPLDs. IQ parts from these families have already been used in such telematic systems as I-Drive for BMW's 740i automobile.

Members from these families have been qualified to operate over the -40 to +125 degree C range. During 3Q02, Xilinx intends to qualify members of the CoolRunner XPLA3 and Spartan-II series for the wider temperature range. It also will, by 4Q02, qualify parts from its newest low-cost families, the CoolRunner-II and Spartan-IIE, for automotive use. The company claims that the CPLDs do not experience a drop in performance when operated over the wider range. The performance of the FPGAs, however, drops by about 15%.

PLDs make sense in these advanced automotive systems since they are being produced in modest quantities for the more expensive automobiles. Another reason for using PLDs is that the standards and protocols are still being developed and changed.