Xilinx Launches Defense-grade FPGAs

Xilinx Inc. has launched the Spartan-6Q family and Virtex-6Q family of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) qualified for meeting the rigorous requirements of the aerospace and defense market. The new families include the industry's first defense-grade FPGA based on the low-cost, low-power Spartan series, providing designers with a highly-flexible device that delivers industry-leading secure SWaP-C (size, weight, power and cost) benefits to applications requiring high levels of security and reliability.

Xilinx's defense grade FPGAs are pin compatible to their commercial equivalent for seamless migration between prototyping and low rate initial production. They are fully tested and qualified to operate in extreme temperatures, while the Virtex-6Q device's ruggedized plastic packaging using standard lead content eliminates tin-whiskering concerns and protects against caustic processes. The introduction of the first defense-grade Spartan family extends Xilinx Targeted Design Platforms for Aerospace and Defense-grade applications to include secure mobility and similar applications with the same high reliability and long-term support offered by the Virtex series.

The Spartan-6Q family meets the needs of military communications (MILCOM) customers who require a low power, low cost, secure communications platform, while offering missiles and munitions customers a small form factor in a low power secure platform for targeting and data processing in extended temperature ranges. The Spartan-6Q FPGAs are the first in their class to offer a low power, low cost Information Assurance (IA) and Anti Tamper (AT) platform providing increased secure SWaP-C, and high reliability.

The sixth generation in the Spartan FPGA Series, the Spartan-6Q FPGAs are fabricated on a low-power 45nm dual-oxide process technology with full support in the Xilinx ISE Design Suite.

Xilinx's Virtex-6Q family offers secure SWaP-C benefits while being the only FPGA on the market to provide AT in a ruggedized solution for applications that need high levels of performance and logic density up to the full military temperature range. The 40nm Virtex-6Q FPGAs Virtex-6Q devices deliver high-performance DSP solutions with high reliability and low power for Electronic Warfare (EW) and Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) applications, I and M fully tested temperature range operation, and third generation AT capabilities (DoD 5000 Series).

Built using third-generation Xilinx ASMBL architecture, the Virtex-6 FPGA family delivers 50 percent lower power and 20 percent lower cost than the previous generation. The devices operate on a 1V core voltage with an available 0.9V low-power option and are supported by a new generation of development tools delivered by ISE Design Suite and a vast library of IP already available for the market leading 65nm Virtex 5 FPGA family to ensure productive development and design migration.

Spartan-6Q and Virtex-6Q FPGAs make up the silicon base of the Xilinx Targeted Design Platforms for the Aerospace and Defense market that significantly shorten the time it takes to integrate all the hardware and software elements needed to quickly build systems that reach optimal levels of system performance, while ensuring low levels of power consumption. In addition to domain-optimized silicon devices, these platforms include IP blocks, design environments and reference designs, along with third-party synthesis, simulation and signal integrity tools, reference designs, and IP. Xilinx off-the-shelf defense grade FPGAs are prequalified and ready to order. The Spartan-6Q Family and Virtex-6Q Family will be available in I-temperature (industrial-temp -40°C to 100°C) as well as Q and M-temperature devices (Q: -40°C to 125°C (Spartan-6Q only), M: minus 55°C to 125°C (Virtex-6Q only)) in Q2 2011.

Xilinx in Aerospace and Defense

Xilinx

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