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San Mateo, Calif. - After four years of development, Xilinx Inc. last week introduced its first field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on an antifuse technology.
The new XC8100 architecture combines Xilinx's MicroVia antifuse technology with its patented 0.6-micron amorphous silicon, "sea-of-gates" architecture, said Lee Farrell, marketing vice president at Xilinx, San Jose, Calif.
In contrast to "transistor"-type antifuse devices, the XC8100 is constructed like the vias used in gate arrays, Farrell said. The top two layers of metal contain routing wires, sandwiching the antifuses in between. The underlying third metal layer contains the gate logic. The result is a very low resistance, coupled with improved routing resources. Resistance varies from 40 ohms "on" to a gigohm in the "off" position.
Devices with 1,248, 3,328, and 5,616 usable gates are available now, with I/Os ranging from 80 to 168...