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**Founding & Innovation Legacy**
- Founded in 1984 by industry visionaries Ross Freeman, Bernie Vonderschmitt, and Jim Barnett. Freeman’s creation of the FPGA transformed programmable logic into a thriving industry.
- Xilinx’s legacy is honoured each year through the Ross Freeman Award, recognising internal technical innovation since 1992.
**Product Evolution & Technological Firsts**
- Introduced breakthrough FPGA platforms: Virtex, Kintex, Artix, and the integrated Zynq-7000 series.
- Delivered the UltraScale+ VU19P, one of the world’s largest FPGAs with 35 billion transistors, and led innovation in 2.5D stacked silicon with the Virtex-7 2000T.
- Released Versal ACAP (Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform) featuring AI engines and on-chip NOCs, redefining programmable acceleration.
**Ecosystem & 5G Trailblazing**
- Early partnership with AWS enabled FPGA deployment via Amazon Machine Images (FPGA AMIs).
- Zynq-based platforms powered the first commercial 5G NR deployments with Samsung in South Korea—instrumental in mMIMO and mmWave rollout.
- Acquired Solarflare Communications in 2019, enabling FPGA-driven 100G NICs for high-performance networking.
**Pre-Acquisition Scale & Reach**
- By fiscal 2021, it achieved $3.15 billion in annual revenue and employed close to 4,900 staff—a leading fabless provider of adaptive silicon.
- Headquartered in San Jose, with European operations in Dublin and Asian operations in Singapore.
**Pioneering the AI Engine**
- Developed the AI Engine (AIE) for on-chip AI/ML acceleration within Versal platforms.
- Post-acquisition, this IP evolved into AMD’s XDNA, powering Ryzen AI and Versal/Alveo FPGA products.
- The first XDNA microarchitecture, debuting in Ryzen 7040 mobile processors, delivers up to 10 TOPS of compute performance.
**Strategic Acquisition by AMD**
- In October 2020, AMD announced an all-stock acquisition of Xilinx valued at $35 billion, intended to unite CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and adaptive SoCs into a “high-performance and adaptive computing leader”.
- February 2022 saw the deal close, culminating in what became the largest semiconductor acquisition in history (~$49 billion) due to AMD’s stock appreciation. electronicdesign.com CRN
- The combined company now addresses a trillion-dollar Total Addressable Market (TAM) spanning cloud, edge, intelligent devices, telecom, automotive, aerospace, and industrial applications.
- Xilinx’s leadership, including CEO Victor Peng, joined AMD as president of the new Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group (AECG).
**Global Footprint & India Expansion**
- The acquisition doubled AMD’s employee presence in India, with Xilinx’s Hyderabad team becoming a key strategic asset outside North America.
- AMD increased its estimated TAM from $80 billion to $135 billion after the merger, reflecting expanded market reach and product breadth.
**Momentum & Analyst Sentiment**
- Analysts, including Bank of America, hailed the deal for:
- Expanding TAM from $80B to $135B
- Boosting R&D scale and product synergies
- Immediate accretion to non-GAAP margins, EPS, and free cash flow
- Xilinx’s share gains over Intel’s Altera offering
Summary at a Glance
- **FPGA Pioneer**: Xilinx established programmable silicon as a broad-based innovation enabler across industries.
- **Continuous Evolution**: From FPGAs to ACAPs and AI Engines, the company consistently expanded capability frontiers.
- **Ecosystem Leader**: Engaged with hyperscale, telecom, automotive, industrial, and aerospace sectors through strategic partnerships.
- **Acquisition Catalyst**: Merged into AMD to form a diversified powerhouse of CPUs, GPUs, and adaptive compute.
- **Global Expansion**: Doubled presence in India and catalysed AMD’s entry into new embedded and industrial markets.
- **Strategic Impact**: Created leadership positioning for heterogeneous compute and adaptive acceleration across data-intensive workloads.