Xilinx announced the Virtex®-6 HXT FPGA, which supports 40Gbps and 100Gbps line cards including 1x40Gbps, 4x10Gbps, 1x100Gbps, and 10x10Gbps, along with flexible port configurations. In addition, the Virtex-6 HXT FPGA supports long-range optical conditions for next-generation communication equipment without expensive external retimer circuits through industry-leading transceiver jitter performance.

Victor Krutul, Marketing Director of Optical Fiber Products at Avago, said, “Xilinx has verified the interoperability of the Vertex-6 HXT FPGA with industry-leading optical transceiver suppliers, including Avago Technologies. Avago Technologies is pleased to provide optical transceivers compatible with the Vertex-6 FPGA for standards including 10 Gbps Ethernet,” adding, “With over 30 years of experience in optical interconnects from HP and Agilent, Avago is the only company capable of supporting FPGA designers in moving from copper to optical fiber interconnects as connection speeds shift to over 10 Gbps.”

Xilinx's Virtex-6 HXT device seamlessly interfaces with industry-standard SFP+, XFP, and CFP optical modules at line rates up to 11.18 Gbps, meeting the demands of next-generation optical transport applications. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for separate control circuitry through excellent jitter performance and signal integrity, featuring random jitter of less than 500 fsrms at 11.18 Gbps. Excellent jitter performance provides system designers with the margin needed to build robust high-speed interfaces.
Krishna Rangasayee, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Telecommunications Business Unit at Xilinx, said, “As telecommunications network infrastructure moves to 40Gbps and 100Gbps port rates, high-performance optical jitter transceivers have become a critical factor for success,” adding, “Xilinx’s Virtex-6 HXT devices meet optical standards and requirements while providing the flexibility and customization possible only with programmable logic devices.”

Features of the Vertex-6 HXT device
Optimized for applications requiring ultra-high-speed serial connectivity, the Virtex-6 HXT FPGA enables next-generation packet, transport, switch fabric, video switching, and video equipment by providing industry-leading serial bandwidth through a combination of 6.6Gbps GTX transceivers and 11.18Gbps GTH transceivers. The Virtex-6 HXT device has the following features.
• Ground-up design optimized for 10G signaling – includes Transmit (Tx) pre-emphasis, Receive (Rx) linear equalization, and Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE) to meet demanding jitter requirements
• Reduced jitter with superior DFE and EQ circuits, increased total number of transceivers, increased BRAM, and best SERDES performance
• High-performance analog circuits separated from noisy digital logic and IO