Avnet Electronics Marketing Announces Xilinx Virtex-4 LX Evaluation Kit.

PHOENIX -- Evaluation Kit, Demonstration Code Provide Complete Environment for Assessing Virtex-4(TM) LX Feature Set

Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet Inc. (NYSE:AVT) today released the Xilinx Virtex-4 LX25 Evaluation Kit, one of the first on the market supporting this revolutionary domain-optimized FPGA platform. The evaluation kit, developed by Avnet Design Services, features an XC4VLX25-FF668 device optimized for general logic integration applications. Engineers will be able to take advantage of the feature-rich kit for learning, evaluation, prototyping, benchmarking, and development. The integrated peripherals give the developer the capability of testing how the Virtex-4 LX FPGA can be used with a variety of output devices, memory options and bus architectures. The Virtex-4 LX family features the highest logic and I/O density and delivers the highest programmable logic capacity in the industry, providing the ideal solution for a broad array of applications including industrial control, imaging and communications applications.

The Virtex-4 family is the first embodiment of the revolutionary ASMBL(TM) columnar architecture, a breakthrough from Xilinx in resource allocation mix. Fully functioning demonstrations are included with the kit to exercise peripherals featured on the evaluation board, enabling a quick start to device familiarization. The Virtex-4 LX Evaluation Kit includes schematics, user's guide, bill of materials, wall mount power supply (5V) and a comprehensive board support package to further accelerate time to market. The kit offers Ethernet, USB 2.0 and Serial interfaces and additional expansion capability via daughter cards connected to the AvBus backplane.

The Virtex-4 LX Evaluation Kit will be featured as the hardware platform in the Avnet SpeedWay(TM) Design Workshops designed to provide hands-on customer training. The workshops will be hosted across North America by Avnet's field application engineers over the next several months. Avnet Electronics Marketing will also conduct a series of technical seminars to educate engineers on the powerful feature set within the Virtex-4 family.

"Avnet Electronics Marketing continues its tradition of world-class engineering support for the Xilinx portfolio by being one of the first to deliver a complete evaluation kit based on the revolutionary Virtex-4 family," explained Jim Schaeffer, senior VP of Avnet Design Services. "Our kit is designed to give the developer an efficient way of learning how to implement this powerful platform in conjunction with the peripherals unique to their application."

"The Virtex-4 LX25 Evaluation Kit provides our customers with a quick and inexpensive way to get started with the world's first multi-platform FPGA," said Per Holmberg, director of Virtex Marketing at Xilinx. "The team at Avnet has once again provided our customers with a competitive edge."

The Virtex-4 LX Evaluation Kit is available for purchase today. Contact your local Avnet Electronics Marketing sales office or visit the Web at www.em.avnet.com/v4lx25e for more information. Ordering part numbers and prices are:

ADS-XLX-V4LX-EVL25          With XC4VLX25           $350.00

The Virtex-4 LX25 Evaluation Kit includes the following features:

--Xilinx Virtex-4 LX25 FPGA

--USB 2.0 controller

--Xilinx platform FLASH

--10/100 Ethernet PHY

--8 MB FLASH

--128x64 graphical display

--32 MB DDR SDRAM

--RS-232 console interface

--Clock multiplier/divider

--AvBus connectivity

--Wall Mount Power Supply (5V)

--Documentation:

--User's Guide

--Bill of Materials

--Schematics

About Avnet Electronics Marketing

Avnet Electronics Marketing is the largest operating group of Phoenix-based Avnet Inc., a Fortune 500 company with fiscal 2004 sales exceeding $10 billion, and one of the world's largest technology marketing, distribution and services companies. Avnet Electronics Marketing, Americas (EMA) serves electronic original equipment manufacturers (EOEMs) and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers in North America and Brazil through product-focused businesses, distributing electronic components from leading manufacturers and providing associated services. The company's Web site is located at http://www.em.avnet.com.