On July 10, Xilinx announced UltraScale, the industry's first ASIC-class programmable architecture, and 20nm technology.

Victor Peng, Senior Vice President of Platform Development at Xilinx, stated, "As evidenced by the completion of 20nm development, which is far ahead of the industry, Xilinx's technological capabilities are more than a year ahead of competitors for high-end devices and more than half a year ahead for mid-range devices." He added, "Through the optimization of TSMC's technology with our own UltraScale architecture and Vivado Design Suite, Xilinx provides more than 1.5 to 2 times more reliable system-level performance and integration with technology that is more than a year ahead of competitors."



The UltraScale Architecture was developed to scale from 20nm planar through 16nm and beyond FinFET technology, and from monolithic to 3D ICs. This architecture not only addresses the limitations imposed on scaling total system throughput and latency, but also handles chip performance at advanced nodes and bottlenecks, which are the biggest issues in interconnects.

Innovative architectural approaches require managing system performance at the hundreds of gigabits per second level through smart processes at full line rates, as well as scaling to terabits and teraflops. This necessitates handling massive data flows, real-time packets, DSPs, and image processing not only by increasing the performance of individual transistors or system blocks or expanding the number of blocks within the system, but also by fundamentally improving communication, clocking, critical paths, and interconnects. The UltraScale Architecture addresses these challenges by applying the latest ASIC techniques to an all-programmable architecture.

"Xilinx CEO Mosh Gabrielov added, 'Through the industry's first 20nm development, the first ASIC-class UltraScale architecture, the first SoC-strength Vivado design suite, and ARM processor-based solutions for continuously expanding IP, C, and smarter systems, Xilinx is once again expanding the value and market of the PLD industry. Furthermore, Xilinx is delivering generational value to customers, one year ahead of competitors.'"