CLOUD

SAN JOSE, CA -- Xilinx, Inc., (NASDAQ:XLNX) and supercomputer provider Cray Inc, (NASDAQ:CRAY) today reported that their collaboration on the new Cray SV1ex supercomputer product advanced the boundaries of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. The design goals of Cray's leading-edge supercomputer posed multiple new challenges for FPGA technology. Xilinx and Cray's development team worked together intensively to meet these challenges. As a result, the Cray product began shipping in November 2001, and Xilinx gained valuable systems application insight. "Xilinx was the only FPGA vendor we believed could handle this important, leading-edge assignment," said Gary Shorrel, Cray SV1 engineering project leader. "We had to overcome some hurdles together, because we were pushing FPGA technology where it had never gone before. FPGA technology is an important weapon in Cray's design arsenal, because its reconfigurable logic gives us the potential to reduce design verification requirements and alleviate prototyping and other charges associated with traditional ASIC designs." "Our alliance with Cray was a natural fit for Xilinx," said Sandeep Vij, vice president of worldwide marketing at Xilinx. "Both companies have established technical leadership in our respective markets and we share the same fundamental values of providing customers with leading edge products and unprecedented service. We were extremely impressed with the technical prowess of the people at Cray. This was one of those rare instances where collaboration with a customer directly benefited our own product." Cray utilized over 80 percent of the available logic functions in the Xilinx FPGA, while operating at a clock rate of 200 MHz. This aggressive approach was a requirement for a product to be successful in the supercomputer market place. Cray SV1ex systems with enhanced memory began shipping in fourth-quarter 2001. The Cray SV1 product line was named "Best Supercomputer" in 2001, 2000 and 1999 by the readership of Scientific Computing and Instrumentation magazine, and helped make Cray Inc. number one in the latest rankings of supercomputer performance reported in November 2001 by industry analyst firm IDC.