Xilinx on five key microprocessor trends

BANGALORE, INDIA: This is the concluding part of the discussion with Vincent Ratford, Senior Vice President, Solutions Development Group, Xilinx.

We have been reading and hearing about the rapid advances in solar/PV. With so much investments in solar/PV happening, is there a role for Xilinx to play in this segment?

Ratford said: "Perhaps. Our devices are great for prototyping new ideas and often find their way into new markets. In Base Stations our devices are used to reduce power up to 50 percent. In signal processing applications we have a decided performance/power advantage vs. discrete signal processors. Many of these 'Green' applications require some form of signal and embedded processing."

Another area that is of main concern to the global semiconductor industry is low-power design. According to Ratford, there are a variety of ways to save system power.

"We are designing features in our new products that will reduce active and standby power. We also have power-estimation and optimization tools. I would say there is a lot more to be done in this area at all levels, software, IP and silicon." He was however, tight-lipped about Xilinx's product roadmap beyond the Virtex V. Obviously, we need to remain very tuned toward this!

Key microprocessor trends

Microprocessors have always been among the key areas of interest for semiconductor design and development. On being quizzed on what could be the five major trends for microprocessors, he said: "For our embedded customers it is:

* Rising adoption of Linux.

* Increasing use of multi-core and some multi-processing.

* Accelerating trend to increase the connectivity, bandwidth and reduce the latency between the processor and the FPGA.

* Improve the OOBE (Out of the Box Experience) for non-FPGA developers.

* Reduce power.

Before signing off, my thoughts veered toward LTE and TD-SCDMA, one 4G and the other, a 3G technology, which have been very much in the news lately. As expected, Xilinx has also forayed into both LTE and TD-SCDMA spaces.

Xilinx's Ratford concluded: "Yes, we have complete reference designs for LTE and TD-SCDMA and have secured most of the prototype sockets for these air interface standards with Virtex-5. We have a very strong IP portfolio for the radio shelf and baseband and our Sytem Generator and AccelDSP tools are used extensively."