This article was initially published on July 31, 2019
When Xilinx determined that a key focus of the company moving forward would be enabling data center acceleration and that we would be transforming from a silicon provider to offering a next-generation platform company, our executive team set about identifying critical technologies and the companies that provide them. Solarflare was on our short list, as we had been collaborating with the company for some time, and ultimately became a strategic investor. Its family of SmartNIC intelligent network interface cards (NICs) and software are truly industry-leading, providing their customers with ultra-high performance and ultra-low latency networking.
Earlier this year, the two of us demonstrated a single-chip FPGA-based 100Gb SmartNIC, processing 100 million packets per-second receive and transmit, all at less than 75 watts.
Fast forward to today, when we proudly announce that the Xilinx and Solarflare families have officially been combined. The acquisition of Solarflare that Xilinx previously announced has formally closed, enhancing our product line and allowing us to better serve our data center customers.
The additional technology and expertise will make it possible for Xilinx to deliver innovative, market-leading platforms and better serve customer needs. The new class of software and hardware adaptable SmartNICs developed as a result of the combined companies will be able to run network, storage and compute acceleration directly on a network interface card, eliminating the need to run these workloads on servers. Xilinx will also integrate Solarflare networking technology into its Alveo portfolio of adaptable accelerator cards for critical data center workloads.
Today marks an important stepping stone to delivering uniquely powerful and complete data center solutions for our customers. Acquiring Solarflare brings Xilinx both market-leading technology and additional expertise in networking hardware, software, firmware and drivers. We are very excited about the many benefits our customers will realize with Solarflare as part of the Xilinx family to enable the adaptable, intelligent world.