Press Release:

Teradyne, Cadence And Xilinx Announce Industry’s First Multi-Gigabit Backplane To FPGA Design Solution

New Design Infrastructure Leverages Use Of Teradyne VHDM-HSD, Xilinx(R) Virtex-II Pro(TM), And Cadence SPECCTRAQuest(TM) Technologies

SAN JOSE, CA -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 06/26/2002 -- Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE: TER) Connection Systems Division, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CDN), and Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) announced today the availability of an extended version of the Rocket I/O™ Design Kit for SPECCTRAQuest, the Cadence industry-leading signal integrity analysis tool. Designed for advanced hardware design, the RocketIO Design Kit enables users to simulate and validate multi-gigabit per second system-level interconnections, accurately modeling transceiver, PCB, and connector performance. Accurate modeling of multi-gigabit signaling is critical in the creation of the high-bandwidth connectivity demanded in today’s networking, telecom, enterprise storage, and computer applications. The Xilinx RocketIO Design Kit for SPECCTRAQuest marks the first complete system solution spanning FPGAs, EDA software, and high-performance connectors.

A key component of the RocketIO Design Kit for SPECCTRAQuest is the industry’s first XAUI Compliant 10 Gb/s backplane solution for FPGAs. XAUI, or 10 Gb/s Attachment Unit Interface, is the industry leading connectivity solution at the 10Gb/s data rate, and is based on channel bonding of 4 separate 3.125Gb/s links. This design kit introduction follows the March 11, 2002, announcement by Xilinx and Cadence of a multi-faceted alliance for developing system and board-level design solutions for the new generation of Virtex-II series platform FPGAs.

“As the industry moves rapidly to serial interconnect architectures, comprehensive development solutions incorporating multi-gigabit transceiver models, connector models, and system modeling EDA tools mark a new era in system design methodologies. The RocketIO Design Kit for SPECCTRAQuest delivery represents the first time that industry leaders in high-performance interconnect, EDA, and programmable logic have joined together to provide a combined system solution of this magnitude,” said Erich Goetting, vice president and general manager of the Xilinx Advanced Products Division. “The technology collaboration among our companies has also set an important foundation for future development of multi-gigabit connectivity solutions.”

Single channel 3.125 Gb/s serial operation now included

The new design kit for SPECCTRAQuest, originally announced March 13, 2002, now includes single-pair coupled connector models for Teradyne’s VHDM-HSD™ connectors to provide a backplane design solution for up to 3.125 Gb/s serial operation on a single channel. With the addition of Teradyne’s interconnect design support, users can eliminate design experiments and design iterations, enabling faster time to market. This high-speed serial signaling is not only compatible to backplane standards / protocols like XAUI and Xilinx Aurora, but also to connectivity standards like PCI-EXPRESS (3GIO) and InfiniBand; as well as flexible / scalable standards like PICMG.

“To achieve tomorrow’s demanding data rates designers must look at the entire system—from device to device—in addition to individual component performance,” said Tom Pitten, development engineering manager at Teradyne Connection Systems. “Our collaboration with Xilinx and Cadence delivers a truly integrated system solution with exceptional engineering value to our mutual customers.”

“Cadence and Xilinx originally created the SPECCTRAQuest design kit to help engineers shorten design cycles and reduce signal integrity problems at the board level when designing with multi-gigabit serial Rocket I/O transceivers,” said Hemant Shah, director of High-speed Products for Cadence. “Teradyne has now extended the kit’s value to the system level, more tightly linking the design chain.”

The combined system solution

High performance systems typically communicate over a backplane to maximize system bandwidth. To meet these complete system bandwidth requirements, designers must look at the entire design from board to board rather than at individual component performance to achieve multi-gigabit data rates. Silicon and board connectors must work together to achieve multi-gigabit data rates.

About Teradyne Connection Systems

Teradyne Connection Systems (TCS), a division of Boston-based Teradyne, Inc., provides high performance system solutions to industry leading OEMs, with printed circuit boards, high-speed, high-density connectors, multi-gigabit backplane assemblies and complete systems integration and test. Teradyne's high-technology components and electronic manufacturing services are used by manufacturers of communications and computing systems central to building networking infrastructure. For more information visit www.teradyne.com/tcs.

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design automation products, methodology services, and design services. Cadence solutions are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronics-based products. With approximately 5,700 employees and 2001 revenues of approximately $1.43 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CDN. More information about the company, its products and services is available at www.cadence.com.

About Xilinx

Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) is the worldwide leader of programmable logic solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at www.xilinx.com.