Minister Martin opens Xilinx Research Labs in Dublin

IDA supported R&D investment of €7.5 million

Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Micheál Martin TD today (Thursday 27^th October 2005) officially opened the new Xilinx Research Labs Ireland operation based at the Xilinx Inc. European Headquarters in Dublin. Xilinx Research Labs, which is supported by IDA Ireland, will involve an investment of €7.5 million.

Performing the official opening at Citywest Business Park Campus, Minister Martin said, “This investment by Xilinx Ireland in R&D further enhances the company’s profile as a model of how an international company in Ireland can develop beyond its original mandate to become a key link in the company’s global chain. Since the establishment of Xilinx Ireland in 1995, the company has invested in excess of €125 million in the largest facility operated by Xilinx outside of North America employing 450 people in Ireland. The company has expanded from an initial manufacturing operation to a European Headquarters operation, with global responsibility for certain product lines and home to corporate centres of excellence, with a strong culture of creativity and innovation.”

The new high-level research operation will work in tandem with Xilinx Research Labs in the United States. This is the first time that Xilinx has located a research labs operation of this nature outside of the United States and it is a significant endorsement by the corporation of the strong performance to date of its European operations headquartered in Dublin.

Xilinx designs and produces programmable semiconductor chips capable of being programmed individually for use in a wide range of electronic systems. The Irish centre will specialise in the field of networking and emerging network architectures, an area in which programmable microchips can make a major contribution due to their versatility and high performance characteristics.

The company will initially recruit PhD qualified engineers as Principal Researchers, and PhD or experienced Masters degree holders as Staff Research Engineers. Xilinx Research Labs Ireland will also engage strongly in collaborative research work with other academic and commercial research facilities in Ireland. Xilinx currently operates an advanced R&D, engineering and operations centre in Dublin. It also has responsibility for Finance, Legal, IT, Strategic Marketing and overall business operations management.

“We’re honoured to join forces with the best and the brightest researchers in Ireland and throughout Europe in our quest to invent the future of scalable, reconfigurable computing architectures – for systems ranging from cheap and simple appliances through to high-end network switching devices,” said Ivo Bolsens, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Xilinx. “Today’s news on Xilinx Research Labs Ireland represents a major milestone for Xilinx in tackling the key research questions associated with future telecommunications systems.”