Virtex-5 FXT Platform
Frequently Asked Questions
XILINX SHIPS NEW VIRTEX-5 FXT FPGAS
The Ultimate System Integration Platform
March 2008
1. What is Xilinx announcing today?
Xilinx is announcing the general availability of engineering samples for the Virtex®-5 FXT
FPGA platform – the ultimate system integration platform optimized for high-performance
embedded processing, digital signal processing (DSP) and high-speed serial connectivity.
The Virtex-5 FXT FPGA family is the capstone of the 65nm Virtex-5 family that began
shipping in 2006. Comprised of five new devices, the Virtex-5 FXT platform includes the
first FPGAs to feature industry-standard PowerPC® 440 processor blocks. It also includes
low-power GTX transceivers capable of 6.5Gbps performance and DSP48E slices that
deliver more than 190 GMAC’s of performance.
2. What are the key capabilities and features of the Virtex-5 FXT Platform?
 Ultimate System Integration
o One flexible platform enabling the integration of your unique system design optimizing logic, embedded processing, digital signal processing and serial
connectivity
o Combine system level control with high speed data plan processing and high
speed serial connectivity on a single platform
o Reduce system costs, board space and component count while also balancing
performance and power consumption
 High-performance embedded processing
o Built-in industry standard PowerPC 440 processor blocks
o Optimized processor interconnect architecture
o Enhanced IP peripheral catalog and comprehensive tool suite
 Advanced serial connectivity
o Support up to 6.5Gbps
o Low-power, high-performance and full feature transceivers
 Advanced System Level Digital Signal Processing (XtremeDSP performance)
o High DSP performance that addresses the most computation-intensive
applications
o High ratio of DSP slices, internal memory and total IO bandwidth address system
level requirements
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o Complete design environment
3. How many devices and packages are available with the Virtex-5 FXT platform?
The Virtex-5 FXT platform consists of five devices: FX30T, FX70T, FX100T FX130T and
FX200T. These devices offer a range in logic density from 33,000 to 197,000 logic cells, up
to two PowerPC processor blocks, 8 to 24 RocketIO™ GTX High-Speed Transceivers and
have 64 to 384 dedicated DSP48E slices. Detailed information on the Virtex-5 FXT family of
devices is available at www.xilinx.com/virtex5fxt.
4. When will Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs be available and how much will they cost?
Virtex-5 FXT engineering samples are now shipping for the FX30T and FX70T devices in
the -1 speed grade. The remaining devices will follow over the next six months. The FX30T
device will list for $159 in 1,000 unit volumes by the second half of 2009. For even further
cost reductions, the Virtex-5 EasyPath™ program offers up to 75 percent cost reduction that
will be available at time of volume production.
5. What is the Virtex-5 FPGA family?
The Virtex-5 FPGA family is the industry’s first 65-nm programmable devices and fifth
generation in the Xilinx Virtex Series. The FXT platform is the fourth of four domainoptimized platforms in the Virtex-5 family. Built on the unique ASMBL™ architecture and
manufactured with power-optimized triple-oxide technology, Virtex-5 FPGAs deliver
unprecedented levels of performance, density, power, and cost advantages. The Virtex-5
family includes:
• Virtex-5 LX Platform for high performance logic
• Virtex-5 LXT Platform for high performance logic with serial connectivity
• Virtex-5 SXT Platform for high performance DSP with serial connectivity
• Virtex-5 FXT Platform for embedded processing with serial connectivity
6. How does the Virtex-5 FXT platform fit into the overall Virtex-5 family?
The Virtex-5 FXT device announcement is part of the broader Virtex-5 family roll-out which
started in 2006 and includes the LX, LXT and SXT platforms of domain specific
architectures. The Virtex-5 FXT platform builds on the success of Virtex-5 LX, LXT and
SXT platforms and introduces a new PowerPC 440 high-end embedded processor block and
high-speed serial IO to complement the offering. All Virtex-5 LXT, SXT and FXT platforms
are pin compatible, offering customers the flexibility to address evolving standards and
requirements. The Virtex-5 FXT platform introduces embedded processing support as well
as supporting the existing logic, DSP and high-speed IO to facilitate complete systems
integration.
7. Is the Virtex-5 FXT platform supported by the recently announced ISE™ Design Suite
10.1?
Yes. The ISE Design Suite 10.1 provides FPGA logic, embedded and DSP designers with
access to the entire line of Xilinx design tools including ISE Foundation™, Embedded
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Development Kit (EDK), System Generator for DSP, AccelDSP™ Synthesis Tool,
ChipScope™ Pro and ChipScope Pro Serial I/O Toolkit, PlanAhead™ Design and Analysis
Tool and ISE Simulator.
8. What types of applications and end-markets does the Virtex-5 FXT platform target?
The Virtex-5 FXT is a multi-faceted platform with broad integrated capabilities, ideal for
creating system solutions for several sophisticated markets and applications with exacting
requirements. Markets and applications include:
 Communications
o Wired and Wireless
 Audio Video Broadcast
o Video Mixers, Routers
o Digital Cinema
 Military and Aerospace
o Secure Communication
o Control, Guidance, Imaging, Positioning
 Industrial, Scientific, Medical
o I.C. Testers, Scanner Systems
9. What key customer benefits does the Virtex-5 FXT platform deliver?
The Virtex-5 FXT platform was created to give customers a way to lower costs by offering a
comprehensive system-integration platform that supports high-performance FPGA logic,
embedded and DSP processing as well as high-speed IO.
10. Why was the PowerPC 440 processor chosen for the Virtex-5 FXT platform?
The PPC440 processing core was primarily designed for applications in which maximum
performance and extensive peripheral integration are the critical selection criteria of our
customers in the Virtex-5 FXT platform’s target markets. It offers performance and feature
migration for customers who have adopted the PowerPC 405 processor in the earlier VirtexII Pro and Virtex-4 FX FPGAs. The processor family was also chosen because Xilinx FPGAs
are used in a wide range of applications including communications – wired and wireless
infrastructure – where PowerPC has consistently been an industry standard.
11. How does the PowerPC processor implementation differ from Virtex-4 FX?
There are two main enhancements over the Virtex-4 FX implementation: The PowerPC
processor core itself, as well as integrated features tightly-coupled to the core, have been
added to the Virtex-5 FXT – what Xilinx calls the PowerPC 440 “Block”.
PowerPC 440 Core:
 The IBM PowerPC 440 core included in the Virtex-5 FXT family is a 32-bit RISC,
Book E compliant CPU. This embedded 440 core integrates a superscalar 7-stage
pipeline, separate 32KB instruction and data caches, a JTAG port, trace FIFO,
multiple timers and a memory management unit (MMU) delivering 2.0 DMIPS/MHz.
o About Book E Enhanced PowerPC Architecture:
The PowerPC Book E architecture, referred to as Book E, is a collaboration
between IBM and Motorola defining needs for the embedded market. The
architecture defines the instruction set, the storage model, interrupt action,
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
Frequently Asked Questions
control flow operations, integer operation, floating point operations, auxiliary
processor operations, exception, timer facilities, debug facilities,
synchronization and other topics.
The IBM PowerPC 405 core included in the Virtex-4 FX platform is a 32-bit RISC
core with a 5-stage pipeline, separate 16KB instruction and data caches, a JTAG port,
trace FIFO, multiple timers and a memory management unit (MMU) delivering 1.52
DMIPS/MHz
Xilinx PowerPC 440 Block:
 Xilinx has included enhancements in the implementation of the PowerPC 440 that
include a new 5 x 2, 128-bit crossbar switch integrated in silicon. The switch enables
point-to-point connectivity as well as simultaneous I/O and memory access. Also
included are Integrated DMA channels and dedicated bus/memory interfaces to help
optimize performance, reduce system latency and minimize logic requirements.
 In addition, an Auxiliary Processor Unit control enables co-processing acceleration.
12. Are there any royalty fees associated with the PowerPC 440 blocks?
No.
13. Does the Virtex-5 FXT platform support embedded process applications that require an
operating system?
Yes. There are a number of industry standard operating systems and debuggers that support
the PowerPC 440 architecture that can be applied toward a broad base of applications.
14. What operating systems are supported?
At the time of announcement, support includes:
Wind River® -- VxWorks® RTOS and Linux RTOS
MontaVista™ -- MontaVista Linux Pro RTOS
Green Hills® -- Integrity® RTOS (with board support package and Floating Point Unit –
dual precision support )
15. What are the capabilities of the GTX transceivers?
To address industry’s high demand for IO bandwidth, the Virtex-5 FXT platform includes 8
to 24 high-performance, low-power GTX transceivers that run at a line rate of up to 6.5Gbps.
The GTX transceivers contain many advanced features including advanced 4-tap Decision
Feedback Equalization combined with available transmitter pre-emphasis improves signal
integrity. The integrated flexible gearbox supports leading-edge protocol encoding and
decoding requirements. The GTX transceiver offers low power consumption, 200mW typical
power per channel at 6.5Gbps.
16. What high-speed serial protocols are supported by the Virtex-5 FXT GTX transceiver?
The RocketIO GTX transceivers are capable of supporting data rates from 500 Mbps to
6.5Gbps. Customers can design applications supporting standards such as XAUI, Fibre
Channel, SONET, Serial RapidIO, PCI Express® 1.1 and 2.0, Interlaken, and others.
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17. What support is available for the protocols not listed above?
Virtex-5 FXT GTX transceivers have been designed to address a large number of protocols
across a wide variety of market segments. For specific protocols not listed here, Xilinx has
one of the largest and best trained field specialist organizations equipped to engage with
customers and provide guidance not only for industry standard protocols but also proprietary
interfaces that use the Virtex-5 FXT platform’s GTX transceivers.
18. What are the DSP capabilities of the Virtex-5 FXT devices?
The Virtex-5 FXT platform includes 64 to 384 built-in 18x25 DSP slices that deliver over
190 GMACs at up to 550Mhz. These high bandwidth DSP slices combined with 16.5MB of
memory that delivers up to 92 tera-bits/sec memory bandwidth, 163 GBytes/sec aggregate IO
bandwidth to enable system level digital signal processing. The Virtex-5 FXT platform
supports DSP specific serial protocols such as CPRI, OBSAI, SRIO, and PCI Express®.
19. What is the DSP48E slice?
The DSP48E slice is an extension of the DSP48 slice found in Virtex-4 devices. This secondgeneration DSP engine incorporates a number of enhancements to the innovative DSP48
architecture introduced in the Virtex-4 FPGA family. The DSP48E slices provide improved
flexibility and utilization, lower power consumption and increased maximum frequency. The
DSP48E slice supports many independent functions. These functions include multiply,
multiply accumulate (MACC), multiply add, three-input add, barrel shift, wide-bus
multiplexing, magnitude comparator, bit-wise logic functions, pattern detect, and wide
counter. The architecture also supports cascading multiple DSP48E slices to form wide math
functions, DSP filters, and complex arithmetic without the use of general FPGA fabric. This
integrated, cascadable approach to DSP enables significant power savings over traditional
implementations. Each DSP48E slice consumes only 1.4mW/100MHz of dynamic power.
20. What boards will be available for embedded processing and high speed serial IO
development?
Xilinx provides a comprehensive set of boards to address evaluation, development, and
characterization of Virtex-5 FXT solutions.
The Virtex-5 FXT ML507 evaluation platform enables customers to evaluate embedded
processor and high-speed IO applications using Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs. This board is
available at launch to customers through our Field Applications organization and will be
available for purchase at the end of May.
The Virtex-5 FXT ML510 platform enables customers to evaluate and develop complete
embedded processor systems that target up to two of the embedded PowerPC440 cores
available in Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs. This embedded development platform will be available to
customer for purchase in the second half of 2008.
.
The Virtex-5 FXT ML523 characterization platform enables customers to characterize
Virtex-5 FXT GTX transceivers. This characterization platform will be available to
customers in the second half of 2008 through Xilinx IO specialists.
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21. Has Xilinx engaged with any customers on Virtex-5 FXT FPGA designs?
Xilinx engaged with hundreds of customers worldwide to define its next-generation Virtex-5
FPGA product line. Xilinx has been working with several early access customers who have
validated and begun to adopt the Virtex-5 FXT platform.
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