Xilinx: Stacked silicon interconnect technology yields huge FPGA

Xilinx: Stacked silicon interconnect technology yields huge FPGA

The Xilinx Virtex-7 2000T field-programmable gate array is the world’s highest-capacity programmable logic device. It has 6.8 billion transistors and 2 million logic cells equivalent to 20 million ASIC gates. This capacity is made possible by stacked silicon interconnect technology, or what’s known as 2.5D IC stacking. The FPGA uses through-hole vias and an interposer.

The devices silicon interposer layer acts as a sort of microcircuit board in silicon on which multiple die are set side by side and interconnected. SSI technology avoids the power and reliability issues that can result from stacking multiple dies on top of each other. Engineers are using the 2000T FPGA to replace large capacity ASICs and for the all-important prototyping and emulation of advanced ASIC designs. Having a large ASIC simulated in one FPGA chip increases timing accuracy and thus reduces the risk of very costly re-spins.

The price of this device has not been released – but you can be assured this chip is not what you would call “low cost.”

Xilinx, San Jose , CA
Sales 408-559-7778
www.xilinx.com