VMETRO adopts Xilinx Virtex-5 SXT FPGA to boost DSP performance

VMETRO today announced support for the new Xilinx [NASDAQ: XLNX] Virtex™-5 SXT FPGA platform, optimized for high-performance DSP. VMETRO is developing a range of Virtex-5 FPGA-based products suitable for a number of applications including fiber-optic boards, analog I/O modules and array processing cards based on open standard PMC, XMC, VPX and VXS form-factors. Since the Virtex-5 SXT and LXT devices share a compatible footprint and FPGA package size, while supporting high-bandwidth, multi-gigabit serial transceivers, VMETRO's customers will be able to choose between maximum DSP support and maximum logic gates in a single board design. Key markets that will benefit from these products include Electro-Optics (EO), Electronic Warfare (EW), Signal Intelligence (SigInt) and telecommunications.

VMETRO's customers can now better optimize their solution because of the cross Virtex-5 FPGA domain support. The third of four domain-optimized platforms in the new Virtex-5 family shipping today, the 65nm Virtex-5 SXT platform now includes a larger number of sophisticated DSP48E blocks than available in either the Virtex-5 LX or Virtex-5 LXT devices. Optimized specifically for high-performance DSP, each DSP48E block, able to operate at up to 550MHz, includes a 25 x 18-bit multiplier, adder/subtractor/accumulator and bit-wise operations. These are easy to cascade for efficient, high-performance tasks such as filters, image processing and FFTs.

“The approach that Xilinx has taken with the Virtex-5 family is very beneficial to a COTS board vendor like VMETRO and to our customers. Since the Virtex-5 LXT and SXT devices are footprint compatible, a single product supporting high-speed serial I/O fabric can be optimized for the amount logic gates (the LXT) or DSP blocks (the SXT),” said Dave Barker, Vice President of Market Development at VMETRO, Inc. “The common Virtex-5 LXT/SXT device footprint enables us to deliver products to market faster and gives customers the flexibility to choose which Virtex-5 is best suited for their application.”

VMETRO's first Virtex-5 SXT based products will be available in mid-2007.