Xilinx today announced that its Virtex radiation tolerant FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) have been deployed on board Optus C1, the largest hybrid commercial and defence communications satellite ever launched. The UHF payload for the communications satellite was designed and manufactured by Raytheon in St. Petersburg Florida under contract with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan), and was launched on June 11, 2003 for the use of the Australian Defence Force.
The Xilinx Virtex FPGAs are used to apply signal process algorithms to communications data coming from Earth. The Virtex devices were selected over competitive devices based upon superior density and speed. Raytheon is among a growing number of companies to select Xilinx radiation tolerant FPGAs for space exploration and satellite deployment. Raytheon also took advantage of numerous Xilinx IP cores to assist in the design. The Optus C1 UHF Payload was commanded into operational status on July 7 and is performing flawlessly.
"Xilinx is proud to be an integral part of this important space program," stated Howard Bogrow, marketing manager for Xilinx Aerospace and Defense Products. "This is another example of our rapidly growing space heritage."
Xilinx currently supplies Virtex radiation tolerant products up to one million system gates. Soon to be announced is a family of Virtex-II products up to six million system gates which is also radiation tolerant. The Xilinx Virtex-II Platform FPGA series delivers the highest performance and highest density of any programmable logic solution available today. The innovative Virtex-II IP Immersion architecture enables integration of both hard and soft intellectual property (IP), enhanced system memory, and lightning-fast DSP performance, providing the best platform for advanced digital designs in the industry. With densities ranging from 40,000 to eight million-system gates, Virtex-II solutions are empowered by advanced design tools that reduce development time through fast design entry, powerful synthesis, smart implementation algorithms, and efficient verification capabilities.