Samsung, Xilinx announce full production qualification for Xilinx's Spartan-6 FPGA family on 45nm low-power process technology

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA & SAN JOSE, USA: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and Xilinx Inc. have announced that Xilinx's Spartan-6 FPGA family has attained full production qualification on 45-nanometer (nm) process of Samsung Electronics' Foundry business (Samsung Foundry).

This advanced process node, coupled with state of the art FPGA design, produces an optimal balance of cost efficiency, low power, and high performance, enabling the Spartan-6 family of FPGAs to address a wide variety of applications in cost sensitive markets. Today's announcement marks the immediate availability of qualified production shipments from Xilinx manufactured at Samsung Foundry.

"This collaborative effort combines Xilinx's leadership in programmable logic solutions with Samsung's world class process technology, manufacturing, and foundry services to create greater value for the market," said Jay Min, vice president, Samsung Electronics' Foundry business. "We are pleased that Xilinx-Samsung relationship is off to a strong start, and looking forward to a successful long-term partnership," he added.

"Strong collaboration between the engineering teams in Samsung Foundry and Xilinx in conjunction with our diligent New Product Introduction methodology has enabled us to simultaneously attain successful production qualification and a flawless manufacturing ramp," said Vincent Tong, Xilinx Senior Vice President, New Product and Worldwide Quality.

"Samsung Foundry's manufacturing process coupled with Xilinx innovations in advanced power management technology enabled the new Spartan-6 FPGA family to achieve 65 percent lower power than previous Spartan families."

The sixth generation in the Spartan FPGA Series, the Spartan-6 family is fabricated on a proven, low-power (LP) 45nm, dual-oxide process technology. In the fast-growing 45nm low power arena, complicated designs dictated the need for a close engineering partnership between Xilinx and Samsung Foundry engineering teams.

By taking advantage of Samsung Foundry's 45nm LP process technology, Xilinx was able to develop more energy-efficient chips through a two-fold improvement in transistor density for a smaller chip size. This results in the ability of Xilinx to deliver compelling higher-performance, lower- power FPGA solutions to their customers. The production devices are supported in version 11.5 of the Xilinx ISE Design Suite.

Samsung Foundry's 45nm LP process node is in high volume manufacturing utilizing the most advanced immersion lithography and model based optical proximity correction (OPC) coupled with best-in-class design for manufacturing (DFM). Samsung Foundry worked closely with Xilinx, leveraging these advanced techniques to achieve robust designs and higher product yields.

Samsung Foundry's production of Xilinx 45nm products is starting now and will support the growing demand for Xilinx's FPGA solutions.