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Xilinx Touts Process Progress

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Xilinx Ships World's First 90 nm Programmable Chips
Major investment in 90 nm and successful dual-fab strategy with IBM & UMC enables Xilinx to deliver up to 80% cost reduction vs. competitive products.
SAN JOSE, Calif.--March 31, 2003--Xilinx, Inc., the industry leader in programmable-logic solutions, reported that the company is shipping the world's first 90 nm programmable chips. By fully exploiting the industry's most advanced chip-making process technology at 90 nm, Xilinx has reached unprecedented field-programmable gate array (FPGA) price performance levels.
A dual-fabrication partnership strategy with IBM and UMC has put Xilinx at the forefront of the semiconductor industry's race to 90 nm. Functional chips have been produced at both IBM and UMC. Because 90 nm device geometries enable more transistors in a smaller area, Xilinx has reduced its die size with this new generation of FPGAs by up to 80 percent, compared to competing 130 nm programmable-logic solutions. In turn, the company will be able to drive pricing down to under $25 each (quantities of 250,000 in volume production in 2004) for a one-million-gate FPGA (approximately 17,000 logic cells), which represents a 35 to 70 percent savings compared to any competitive offering.
In today's market environment, Xilinx considers a dual-fabrication strategy to be an absolutely necessary key element for success as a fabless semiconductor company. It allows Xilinx to be a leader in developing products on the latest semiconductor manufacturing processes, provides multiple sources for products regardless of world conditions, and provides Xilinx with the fabrication capacity it needs to meet customer demand.
"Together with UMC and IBM, Xilinx has made a significant investment in driving the most advanced 90 nm chip-making processes and 300 mm wafer technology to reduce FPGA costs for our customers, while drastically increasing device densities and functionality" said Wim Roelandts, Xilinx president and CEO. "Our unwavering commitment to develop leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing processes has been a key component of the company's success as the market industry leader in programmable logic for many years. Today's 90 nm news is another major step for Xilinx in delivering the time-to-market benefits of programmable logic to the masses and expanding into new applications."
"We're very excited about our progress working with Xilinx for 90 nm production," added Fu Tai Liou, president of the America Business Group at UMC. "These accomplishments put UMC and Xilinx firmly at the forefront of IC manufacturing technology, and underscore the long history of our successful partnership. With the successful transition to 90 nm, our partnership continues to demonstrate the tremendous synergies that are possible through close cooperation between a fabless industry leader and a foundry technology leader. Once again, UMC and Xilinx have set the benchmark for fabless/foundry cooperation."
Added Michael Concannon, vice president of foundry services, IBM Microelectronics Division, "Our deep collaboration with Xilinx is designed to help them provide added value to their customers through the use of IBM's advanced technologies. As evidenced by this shipment of the world's first 90 nm programmable-logic devices, that collaborative model is working. We look forward to driving further advances with Xilinx as our relationship continues to expand."
Investment in Advanced Manufacturing Processes
Xilinx, a pioneer in establishing the fabless semiconductor model more than 18 years ago, has established an impressive track record of industry firsts with its partners in driving advanced chip-making process technology—including first to 90 nm in 2003, 130 nm in 2002, 150 nm in 2001, 0.18 µm in 1999, and 0.25 µm in 1998. Currently, the company is also the highest volume purchaser of processed 300 mm (12") wafers in the world.
Dual-Fabrication Strategy Pays Off
Xilinx has a long history of successful semiconductor manufacturing partnerships—a cornerstone of the company's business strategy and PLD market leadership. For nearly a decade, Xilinx has collaborated with UMC as its primary manufacturing partner for high-volume production of the Xilinx programmable chips. Over the past several years, UMC and Xilinx have aligned to target a number of programmable devices to UMC's deep-submicron processes.
In March, 2002, Xilinx commenced a manufacturing collaboration with IBM, marking the first time IBM manufactured parts for a foundry customer in volume using its most advanced processes, which are normally used in high-end microprocessors, custom chips, and memory products. A collaborative design effort between the two companies resulted in the integration of IBM's PowerPC microprocessor with Xilinx field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to form a new type of hybrid chip family, the Virtex-II Pro, for use in communications, storage, and consumer applications.
In June, 2002, the companies announced a second technology agreement under which IBM is licensing FPGA technology from Xilinx for integration into IBM's Cu-08 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) product offering.

Xilinx and its fab partners have just issued several press releases about advances made in process technology. One is that the company is now sampling devices from a new family that is being produced on a 90 nm process with "functional chips" from both IBM and UMC. The other release announces the production qualification of Virtex-II Pro.
Xilinx did not identify which of the two fabs is actually providing the 90 nm devices being sampled. UMC, however, has announced that it is shipping 90 nm devices. Xilinx will announce the new family next week, and expects to be in volume production with this new series before the end of 2003.
It is important to understand that UMC and IBM do not have a technology agreement at 90 nm, and the processes developed will be different. The two companies did have a technology exchange agreement at 0.13 nm, and developed compatible processes at that node.
The 90 nm samples are now being produced on 200 mm wafers. The companies expect to migrate to 300 mm wafers for the production versions of these devices. Both IBM and UMC are building samples with FSG and low-k dielectrics. IBM is using Dow Chemical's SiLK material, while UMC has switched to Novellus' Coral dielectric. According to Xilinx, the device design and the associated speed files will allow the use of any of these processes for the new family.
Xilinx is right up there with the leaders in delivering 90 nm products. Earlier this year, TI claimed to be shipping 90 nm cell-phone part samples and that it would be in production by the end of the year. Intel plans on having a 90 nm processor available in 2H03.
It will take all of these companies some time before they realize the cost benefits of 90 nm production. Xilinx's goal, for example, is to offer prices below $25 for a one-million-gate FPGA (approximately 17,000 logic cells) for 250k-unit buys by the end of next year.
Altera has said that it had 90 nm test chips last year, but that it didn't plan on device shipments until 1H04. The news from Xilinx may cause Altera to reevaluate its plans. One problem for Altera is that TSMC, Altera's fab partner, has pushed out its planned production of 90 nm parts until 1H04.

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