Xilinx introduces large, high-performance FPGAs for space applications

Xilinx Inc. in San Jose, Calif., is introducing radiation-tolerant Xilinx Virtex-4QV field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for space applications in video, audio, radar streams, and packet processing functions. Virtex-4QV FPGAs incorporate advanced embedded computing and digital signal processing (DSP) technology in one chip. This enables designers of spaced-based digital electronics to reduce system size, weight, and power consumption. “With the introduction of the Virtex-4QV family, designers of high-altitude, in-orbit, space-based, or extra-terrestrial systems in hostile radiation environments can obtain unprecedented levels of integration in a reprogrammable FPGA that has the logic capacity, performance, and advanced silicon features that previously were available only to commercial product developers,” says Mustafa Veziroglu, vice president and general manager of the market-specific products division at Xilinx. Xilinx devices that provide as many as 200,000 logic cells, 10 megabits of RAM/FIFO, two built-in PowerPC processor blocks with auxiliary processing unit (APU) controller, 512 DSP slices, and four built-in Ethernet MAC blocks. All Virtex-4QV FPGAs resist at least 300 kilorads of total-dose radiation, and have single-event latchup (SEL) immunity greater than 125 MeVcm2/mg with Virtex-4QV devices. For more information, visit Xilinx online at www.xilinx.com.