Careers at Xilinx
Mission
Xilinx is a technology company that designs, develops, and markets complete programmable devices and associated technologies. This includes advanced integrated circuits, software design tools, predefined system functions, and field engineering support services.
History
Xilinx was founded in 1984 by Ross Freeman (“Freeman”), Bernard Vonderschmitt and James Barnett (“Barnett”), all former employees of microcontroller manufacturer Zilog. According to reports, Freeman was the visionary behind the Company, wishing to develop chips that acted like a blank tape, allowing users to program the technology themselves. After failing to convince the Zilog hierarchy to develop field-programmable gate array products, Freeman and Barnett left the company to develop the concept independently.
The Company was initially funded using venture capital, raising a reported $18 million by 1987. Xilinx is now publicly listed on the NASDAQ. Xilinx currently has a market capitalization of more than $11.1 billion.
Benefits at Xilinx
Business model of Xilinx
Customer Segments
Xilinx serves more than 20,000 customers across the world, primarily in the US, Asia and Europe. The Company serves corporate and industrial clients across multiple business sectors, including the aerospace and defence, automotive, data centre and storage, medical, wired and wireless communications, video and imaging, and broadcast industries.
Much of the Company’s products reach end users through distributors, which comprise a significant proportion of Xilinx’s customers.
Among Xilinx’s customers are high-profile names such as Qualcomm, Motorola, Cisco Systems, Yahoo, Verisign and Gopro, as well as less well-known operators including China Bak Battery in China, ASML in the Netherlands, and Spark Networks in the US.
Value Propositions
Xilinx’s principal value is in the quality and reliability of its products. The Company is a well-established name within the industry and is a brand associated with a positive reputation. The Company is constantly seeking to develop its products and provide more innovative solutions to its customers.
Xilinx also provides a range of technical support and training services, allowing customers to get the most out of its products.
Channels
Xilinx operates a website hosted at www.xilinx.com, through which the Company’s products and services can be viewed. Products cannot be purchased directly via the Xilinx website. Product descriptions do however link to details on how to contact members of the Company’s sales team, principally telephone and fax numbers for regional and national sales offices.
While products can be purchased from Xilinx directly, the majority of the Company’s sales come via distributors and retailers.
Customer Relationships
Xilinx’s products are available to customers through direct interaction with the Company’s regional and national sales teams.
While products and services can be viewed freely through the Xilinx website, they are not available for purchase on a self-service basis. The Company provides a range of support services to its customers. This includes user guides, documentation, training materials and downloads, as well as a self-hosted community forum through which customers can collaborate on problems and ask questions directly to Xilinx representatives.
Xilinx also operates several social media accounts through which it interacts with and updates its customers, including with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.
Key Activities
Xilinx designs and develops programmable devices and associated technologies. The Company's products include integrated circuits in the form of programmable logic devices, software design tools; targeted reference designs, printed circuit boards, and intellectual property.
In addition to the manufacture and sale of physical products, Xilinx provides design services, customer training, field engineering and technical support.
The Company’s principal aim is to provide integration for electronic equipment manufacturers in end markets, spanning the wired and wireless communications, industrial, scientific and medical, aerospace and defence, audio, video and broadcast, consumer, automotive, and test and measurement industries.
Key Partners
Xilinx collaborates with a number of partners through its Xilinx Alliance Program. These partners assist the Company in developing programmable technologies and devices. The Company’s partners comprise IP providers, electronic design automation vendors, software developers, systems integrators and hardware suppliers.
Partners are organised across four levels dependent on their size and level of contribution, ranging from basic Associate partners to top-tier Premier partners. All Xilinx partners receive access to the Company’s development tools, technical support and training sessions.
The Company lists a number of featured partners on its website, from a range of industries. Xilinx’s Premier partners include Xylon, CoreEL Technologies, Northwest Logic, Fidus Systems, and Topic Embedded Systems.
Key Resources
Xilinx’s key resources are its products, its manufacturing facilities, its distribution channels, and its personnel.
The Company claims to have more than 3,500 patents worldwide. Searches of records held by the US Patent and Trademark Office identified numerous applications filed by the Company, including applications entitled ‘Increased usable programmable device dice’, ‘Integrated circuit package testing’, ‘Clock region partitioning and clock routing’, and ‘Interactive datasheet system’.
Cost Structure
Xilinx principally accrues costs in relation to the development and distribution of its products. This includes research and development costs, manufacturing and supply chain costs, and storage and distribution costs.
The Company also incurs costs in relation to the retention of its personnel – with staff members numbering more than 3,500 globally – in the form of salaries and benefits, and in relation to the operation of multiple regional and national offices.
Revenue Streams
In fiscal year 2016 Xilinx recorded an annual revenue of just over $2.2 billion. The Company generates revenue through the development of sale and programmable devices and the provision of associated technology solutions. The majority of the Company’s revenue is generated through the sale of silicon-based programmable logic devices product offerings, such as the Virtex UltraScale, the Kintex UltraScale and the Spartan-6. In fiscal year 2016, approximately 60% of the Company’s net revenue was derived through the sale of products to distributors.
More than 80% of the Xilinx’s 2016 annual revenue is attributed to the Company’s data centre and communications and industrial, aerospace and defence segments. In addition to the sale of products, the Xilinx also generates revenue through product licensing and ancillary services.
Our team
info: Moshe has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Xilinx since 2008, in which roles he is responsible for formulating the Company's overall strategy. Gavrielov began his career in engineering and engineering management at National Semiconductor and Digital Equipment. He went on to join LSI Logic Corp, where he served in a variety of executive management positions for almost ten years, including a spells as Executive Vice President for the products group, Senior Vice President of International Markets, General Manager for Europe, and General Manager of the ASIC division. Gavrielov later served for seven years as Chief Executive Officer of verification solutions company Verisity, guiding the company through its 2004 initial public offering. The company was ultimately acquired by Cadence in 2005, where Gavrielov went on to serve as Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Verification Division, his last role before joining Xilinx.
info: Ivo serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, responsible for advanced technology development, Xilinx research laboratories and Xilinx university program. Bolsens joined Xilinx in 2001 from Belgium-based research centre IMEC, where he had served as Vice President of Information and Communication Systems. He headed research teams focused on the development of knowledge-based verification for VLSI circuits, design of digital signal processing applications, and wireless communication terminals, as well as on design technology for high-level synthesis of DSP hardware, HW/SW co-design and system-on-chip design.
info: Kevin has served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Xilinx since joining 2004, having fit joined the Company in 1995. Cooney also serves as Managing Director of Xilinx in the EMEA region. Cooney began his career I 1981 as an IT analyst and programmer at Youghal Carpets Holdings. In 1984 he joined Digital Equipment Corporation where he stayed for more than ten years before joining Xilinx. During this time, he held a number of IT management positions including Manager of Information and Communications Technology for Digital's Systems Business Division in Europe.