Xilinx Announces Production Qualification of Spartan-3A I/O FPGAS

Xilinx Inc. announced production qualification of its line of 90 nanometer (nm) input/output (I/O) Spartan-3A platform, including the XC3S50A, XC3S200A, XC3S400A, XC3S700A and XC3S1400A devices for use in consumer electronic and automotive applications.

These applications include digital displays, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), rear-seat entertainment and satellite navigation systems.

"By achieving production qualification across the Spartan-3A within five months since introduction is a testament to the stability and efficiency of our proven 90 nm process technology - the optimum node for high-volume FPGAs [field programmable gate arrays]," said Christophe Chene, Xilinx senior director of marketing and applications for the general products division.

"Having a well-established 90 nm process and proven tight process controls has resulted in an excellent combination of low power, high performance and low cost for high-volume applications," Chene said.

Xilinx said it also achieved substantial power reduction in its Spartan-3 generation FPGAs through higher yields and fine-tuning of its 90 nm process technology.

Quiescent current, also known as static current, was reduced by up to 40% in Spartan-3 FPGAs and up to 57% in Spartan-3E FPGAs. Individual power rail requirements were reduced by up to 90%.

According to Xilinx, every reduction in quiescent current reduces operating current by the same amount. Reduced current can provide for lower-cost power supplies and less heat in the system.