Hello all,
I am a Quality manager at Xilinx, and I have asked to provide specific guidance on the question of counterfieting. I would like to start by saying that the ONLY way to protect yourself is to purchase your devices from an authorized Xilinx distributor. A list can be found at this link.
If you a buying outside of this channel you are taking on a fair amount of risk. Over the past 1.5 years Xilinx along with the Dept of Homeland Security have become aware of an escalatng issue out of SE Asia, where Xilinx component are being marked up for sale into grey market channels. We currently are looking into how to limit this activity.
The real simple rule is that if you go to they brokers or independent distributors you have absolutely no way of validating devices. Even if that entity provides what may appear to be legitimate documentation, the supply chain is broken and the care, custody, and control of the material is suspect. In many cases Xilinx will not be able to assist you in determining if those suspect devices are legitimate or usable.
We must sustain our valid authorized sale and distribution channels and in nearly all cases will not be able to assist or lend resources to unvalidated supply chains. That is not to say that we do not want to support our customer base, but this ever escalating pollution of the supply chain with grey market materials will ultimately strain available resources that would historically assist in these cases.
Please help eliminate this issue by only purchasing though authorized Xilinx sources, and you will avoid, completely, these types of issue.
Best regards