What were the estimates people were giving for the cost of an array to crack current credit card over the Net encryption? -Allen

XILINX SLASHES PRICES OF FIELD GATE ARRAY CHIPS, UPS PERFORMANCE __________________________________________________________________________

Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 Bloomberg

SAN JOSE, Calif. (May 27, 1996 12:53 p.m. EDT) -- Xilinx Inc. said it will slash the price of some of its programmable microchips by as much as 53 percent over the next 12 months.

Xilinx said a new manufacturing process also will allow it to increase performance of the chips, known as field programmable gate arrays, which are found in a variety of complex electronic devices.

Xilinx said that by the end of the year, it expects to be selling its XC5202 field programmable gate arrays for $5 apiece, down 44 percent from an earlier projected price of $9. That price should decline to $4.50 by mid-1997, Xilinx said.

The San Jose, California-based semiconductor maker said it also will trim prices of more expensive gate arrays by as much as 53 percent, bringing XC5210, for example, to $18 in mid-1997 from a current price of $38.

The price cuts are for customers who purchase thousands of gate arrays at a time.

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Xilinx pioneered the development of programmable chips, which are found in complex devices such as networking and telecommunications equipment utilizing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology. Its revenue increased 58 percent to $560.8 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, in the face of steadily falling chip prices, as the company's products found uses in a growing number of devices.