Avnet Electronics Marketing and Xilinx celebrate silver anniversary

PHOENIX, USA: In 1986, Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet Inc., and Xilinx Inc. forged a distribution agreement that has spanned the last quarter-century. This month, Avnet and Xilinx celebrate their silver anniversary, and reflect on a successful distribution relationship that has spanned 25 years.

Just two years after Xilinx co-founder and inventor Ross Freeman introduced the world to a completely new type of semiconductor device – the field programmable gate array (FPGA) – Avnet and Xilinx joined forces. Avnet was instrumental in bringing Xilinx’s first product, the XC2064 FPGA, to market.

In the years that followed, Avnet had a hand in the successful launches of the Virtex FPGA families in 1998 and the Spartan-3 FPGA families in 2003. These successful launches set in motion an Avnet/Xilinx tradition of delivering breakthrough programmable platforms to customers around the globe for the design and production of tens of thousands of end products that improve the quality of our everyday lives.

As Xilinx has continued to lead the industry in FPGA innovation, Avnet has consistently played an integral part in introducing these new technologies to a growing customer base. Currently, Avnet is focused on Xilinx Spartan-6 and Virtex-6 FPGAs, boards and kits, including the low-cost Spartan-6 FPGA LX9 MicroBoard, developed by Avnet.

In addition to distributing Xilinx’s products, Avnet has also worked with the company to bring marquee training events to their worldwide customers, including the successful X-fest seminar series. Since the first X-fest seminar launched in 1997, Avnet and Xilinx have trained more than 40,000 design engineers the world over. The 2012 X-fest seminar series is tentatively planned to begin in May 2012 in 45 locations worldwide.

In 2010, Xilinx announced its decision to align with Avnet as its exclusive global distributor – a tribute to Avnet’s unsurpassed supply and design chain offerings.

“Xilinx values its longtime relationship with Avnet,” said Chris Henry, VP of sales operations for Xilinx. “Together, we’ve paved the way for broad adoption of programmable platforms, fueling thousands of inventive end products designed by our customers. Our decision in 2010 to align with Avnet as Xilinx’ sole global channel distributor is a testament to our proven track record of success and our commitment to taking that success to the next level.”

“The Avnet/Xilinx relationship was founded on the idea that technology should be both flexible and accessible,” added Harley Feldberg, president worldwide, Avnet Electronics Marketing. “These past 25 years alongside Xilinx has led us on an incredible technological journey – giving Avnet the opportunity to provide our customers a consistent stream of innovative technology, training and services. I’m looking forward to the next 25 years.”

Today, Xilinx is the world’s leading provider of programmable platforms, with nearly 50 percent market segment share and $2.4 billion in revenues in fiscal year 2011 ended March 31, 2011. Due to their inherent flexibility, Xilinx’s award-winning products are used by more than 20,000 customers in a broad range of end markets, including: aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer, industrial, medical, scientific, and wired and wireless communications.