Xilinx Solutions Target Growing ASIC and ASSP Gaps for Next-Generation Smarter Networks and Data Centers

These solutions target customers who need to rapidly create, differentiate, and evolve intelligent, fabric-centric data centers and software defined networks (SDN), 'many-band' self-organizing networks (SON) for LTE and LTE Advanced wireless HetNets, and 400G and Nx100G OTN solutions with high availability, low latency, low jitter, and high Quality of Service (QoS) requirements.

ASICs and ASSPs in applications like OTN have been disappearing at a surprisingly rapid pace due to the escalating cost of design, wide variance in device requirements, and the need for much greater levels of intelligence and adaptability, said Krishna Rangasayee, senior vice president and general manager of the Xilinx Communication Business Unit. We see these same pervasive trends spreading throughout next-generation wired and wireless networks and data centers. We also hear from our leading customers that the option for 'me too' equipment design has vanished.

Addressing the Growing Gaps with ASICs and ASSPs

Many ASIC and ASSP vendors are:

1. Challenged to meet the combined requirements for intelligence, flexibility, and adaptability in next-generation systems.
2. Struggling with fragmented and rapidly changing networking and data center standards and application demands.
3. Incapable of enabling customers to effectively add differentiation through their own 'secret sauce.'

These challenges coupled with the rapidly increasing IC design costs and lengthy design cycles have created significant solution gaps for customers. ASSPs and ASICs are either too late to market to meet OEM or operator requirements, are significantly overdesigned to satisfy the superset requirements of many diverse customers, are not an optimal fit for the target application, and/or provide limited ability for customers to differentiate their end products. Often customers face many or all of these gaps when attempting to use the solutions offered by ASIC and ASSP vendors.

SmartCORE IP Building Blocks for Smarter Systems

Xilinx SmartCORE IP – used in conjunction with the company's ARM processor-based Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs, FPGAs, and 3D ICs – provides the technology foundation needed to create an extremely wide range of next-generation applications ranging from data center security appliances and resource-optimizing TOR (top-of-rack) switches to extremely efficient mobile backhaul modems and smarter wired access equipment. SmartCORE IP-based solutions examples include, but are not limited to:

1. Service-level-aware, packet-based processing solutions with dynamic QoS adjustment for 100G and greater OTN networks.
2. Customizable DPD & CFR for Class 1 MC-GSM Power Amplifier Linearization with 60 MHz transmission bandwidth including integrated ARM processor-based control for LTE and LTE Advanced wireless radios.
3. 80 Gbps data center NIC solutions with high-granularity traffic management, enabling the provisioning of a high number of traffic flows to accommodate new services and associated service monetization.

Customers and Services Add 'Secret Sauce'

Customers can add their differentiating 'secret sauce' comprised of smarter, adaptable algorithms and functions by quickly assembling unique combinations of SmartCORE IP embodied in highly flexible Xilinx All Programmable devices. These differentiating elements can be implemented using programmable hardware and/or ARM processor-based programmable software. Xilinx helps customers optimize their designs during the early architecture design phase with applications specialists, and offers advanced design services for customers who require IP customization or full system design support. In the last two-plus years, while Xilinx was acquiring and developing its smarter solutions and working with its most advanced customers, these offerings displaced more than 200 ASICs and ASSPs in a wide range of applications.