Virtex-4 FX60 based products are already shipping now !

As of PLDA they are shipping __now__ their XpressFX board that has FX60 chip on board! Interesting though that there is no pricing or direct order for the XpressFX board so maybe PLDA is lying and they are not actually able to ship.

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Antti

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Antti Lukats
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Antii, it looks very interesting, but I do not beleave that. last week we had a meeting with a Silicas sales man and he told us that

FX12 production device (I.e. not a CES part), likely to be on general availability end of Q1'06. FX20 production device (i.e. not CES), likely to be on general availability MidQ3'06 FX40 production device (i.e. not CES), likely to be on general availability Q3'06

Francesco

Antti Lukats wrote:

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francesco_poderico

schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

well yes that matches what I know as well: no MGT silicon via distribution til Q3'06 so thats exactly why those pictures of the FX60 based boards are so interesting. I know there are several compoanies with ready PCB waiting very badly for the FX60, and not getting them and not getting info when those parts could be available. And still PLDA claims immediate availability of their boards fitted with FX60!

Antti

Reply to
Antti Lukats

At the end of the day it depends on who you are. If you are CIS** yes is usually the answer.

John Adair Enterpoint Ltd. - Soon to be Home of Broaddown4. The Ultimate Virtex-4 Development Board.

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John Adair

John,

You bring up an interesting point.

Yes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease (or in this case, the gorillas get the bananas).

But, I had a strange thought: how many start-ups, consultants, etc. are there that need prototyping quantities (1 to 3 parts)?

Does it make sense to have a program for smaller outfits (which are no less important to Xilinx, as CIS** was small once, too)?

Is this the real case for web-based product availability?

Austin

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Austin Lesea

"Austin Lesea" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:dmptik$ snipped-for-privacy@xco-news.xilinx.com...

Hi Austin,

there are several companies to my knowledge waiting for 2 pieces of FX60 .. there are PCBs either manufactured or ready to go to production.

so it is weird that those companies are unable to get the parts.

its not required to the chips are available from web online, but customers working with leading edge technologies (V4 + PCIe 8 lane as example) and READY to test SHOULD get the silicon as EARLY as possible.

Antti

Reply to
Antti Lukats

I must admit that given our size we generally do better at getting the silicon than most. I remember showing our Broaddown2 product at a large event, in a very large hotel, in SF, in May last year and lots of people hadn't seen a real Spartan-3 at that stage which was quite funny given the audience.

We do get a very unusually perspective because we have worked with every kind of company from one man bands to the largest. We have sat in some very high level presentations (representing customer) getting actively involved with customer delivery and pricing and we do see the difference between small guys and the large ones. The point being we have seen accounts/designs to Xilinx, or Altera, lost because a small number of pieces of silicon are not made available at the right time. Often if a customer brings us in early enough we can help them in a number of ways and generally avoid the problem but we can only do the near impossible at best.

There is a problem for the small customer in that distributors are not very interested if they fail the 80:20 rule generally applied out there. Sometime little guys turn out big and we have already a few of those within our customer base. Anything that eases the acquiring of silicon is a win win situation and we have won accounts in past with our own strategic silicon stock that we carry. That is more than most distributors are doing now. The Xilinx website sales are useful we have already pointed one UK customer at that for something we didn't have nor the local distributor. I would say more devices please even if they are at book price.

John Adair Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Broaddown2. The Ultimate Spartan3 Development Board.

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John Adair

John,

Thank you,

Aust> I must admit that given our size we generally do better at getting the

Reply to
Austin Lesea

A tube of 25 ES parts might mean nothing to CIS**, but could make a dozen startups very happy.

Obviously you don't want to undermine distributors business, so you may have to severely limit quantities per user, or maybe come in 10% above book price, but 2-off samples for prototyping isn't the business they really want anyway (IME, from both sides of the corporation/hobbyist fence).

I'll retract this when I start seeing PayPal buttons instead of (or even alongside) price enquiry registration forms on distributor websites.

- Brian

Reply to
Brian Drummond

I think there are two issues here. Do you want to encourage the small guys? Do you want them using bleeding edge parts?

I think the answers are yes, and no. My view could easily be bogus.

If you are asking about a program to get bleeding edge parts out to small companies/consultants, that seems reasonable, but somebody has to do the filtering to make sure they have a reasonable upside, they can tolerate your schedule slips and/or you can supply enough chips if/when they need them.

If you just want to make mainstream parts available to small companies (and hackers or hobbyists) then I think the best thing you can do is to make them available through your online store or places like Digikey.

I have a perfect application for a small Coolrunner-II. (I want to power the whole thing off the input signal.) Where can I get a few? With this hat, I'm just a hobbyist.

Digikey doesn't carry them.

Your online store doesn't have the small ones.

A while ago they had the non-A small ones and the data sheet available on the same line of the web page said "not recommended for new designs". I'm guessing they pulled the old non-A versions and haven't replaced them with the new -A ones yet.

I could probably use a big one. Cost isn't significant for only a few. Shipping in 2-3 weeks is far from great, but I can wait that long. It's just a hack.

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Reply to
Hal Murray

First:

To your thought: PLENTY OF PEOPLE! And to your question: YES YES YES YES!

I work as a consultant (mostly for small companies), and in the past I've worked in small companies/start-up environments.

Very frequently the small company is willing to try the bleeding edge or work with the newest parts, since the amount of legacy they have to deal with can be very small. For instance, one company I worked with recently was just getting into FPGAs, so they did not have years of dealing with brand A's, or X. Whatever suggestions or reccomendations I made were acted upon. So when the local office of brand A didn't return my calls about NIOS II, I didn't further consider their options.

In the past, if I am unable to get small quantity parts, or not have my phone calls returned for a product inquiry, I'll move on to the next option ASAP. I don't have time to mess around, waiting weeks to talk with the "local rep" only to have tell me nothing useful and not really help to get my parts or information. And if the project initially seems low quantity or if I volunteer that I am a consultant, I never get followed up with (read: I don't look like a design win they can get beau coup dollars for).

I am also very sensitive to giving up my e-mail address and phone number just to get in contact with a local rep. I already get enough e-mail spam and phone spam that I don't need to be listed in any more databases. Why am I made to feel like a criminal if I want to get info, let alone samples (assuming I can even get someone on the phone)?

So, if I can't get the information I need, or the parts I want with minimal hassle, I will move on to the next options. And for the record, most small companies I know work this way.

I'd be curious to hear if anyone else has had these experiences.

Henry.

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H

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