Published in Network

Xilinx to acquire Solarflare

by on30 April 2019


SmartNIC meets FPGA / smart accelerator growth

Xilinx under Victor Peng has managed to step up the game and take the company to a new high. Part of its data center first, AI and 5G strategy is where the acquisition of smartNIC manufacturer Solarflare fits perfectly.

Xilinx drives a considerable portion of adaptive and intelligent computing and is leveraging massive gains by the market recognition of a well-executed roadmap, and has reached an agreement to acquire Solaflare - an Irvine California based privately held company.

Solarflare is a provider of high-performance, low latency networking solutions for customers spanning FinTech to cloud computing. The acquisition will let Xilinx combine its industry-leading FPGA, MPSoC and ACAP solutions with Solarflare's ultra-low latency network interface card (NIC) technology and Onload application acceleration software, for new converged SmartNIC solutions, accelerating Xilinx's "data center first" strategy and transition to a platform company.

The transition to a platform company is an important pillar as it helps make financial gains and enables new R&D and marketing funds for the future. Most companies in their business life cycle realize that they don’t want to be a component manufacturer and that having a complete solution with hardware and software stack end to end is a smarter approach.

100 million packets a second at 75W

Xilinx and Solarflare have been collaborating on advanced networking technology for the last two years. Xilinx recognized the importance of Solarflare technology as it invested in the company in 2017. The two companies recently demonstrated their first joint solution with a single-chip FPGA-based 100G SmartNIC, processing 100 million packets-per-second receive and transmit, all at less than 75 watts. Data center companies love it when a solution helps them offload memory and helps the whole system operate at lower power. One hundred million packets is something that the financial industry can benefit massively - think about the card transactions on a massive scale.

The Solarflare team has worked very closely with Xilinx on next-generation networking technology and business collaboration since Xilinx became a strategic investor," says Russell Stern, chief executive officer, Solarflare. "Our shared vision for the future of data center and cloud computing and the integration of our respective technologies makes this acquisition the ideal next step for our customers, employees, and investors, as well as the broader data center industry.

Solarflare has been a pioneer in key areas such as high-speed Ethernet, application acceleration, and NVMe-over-fabrics, which are the critical components needed to build the next generation of SmartNICs for cloud and enterprise technologies," says Salil Raje, executive vice president and general manager, Data Center Group, Xilinx.  "Acquiring Solarflare brings Xilinx both market-leading technology and exceptional engineering talent with expertise in networking hardware, software, firmware, and drivers. We are very excited about the possibilities with Solarflare as part of the Xilinx family to enable the adaptable, intelligent world.

Victor Peng discussed the acquisition in the companies recent financial conference call confirming that it will strengthen Xilinx’s data center first strategy and described Solarflare as a provider of high-performance, low latency networking solutions for multiple applications, including financial.

Bright path to future

The firm said that combining its i FPGAs, MPSoC and soon ACAP solutions with Solarflare's high-speed NIC technology and onload application acceleration software will create a powerful converged SmartNIC platform. Solarflare's software and networking expertise is an excellent complement to our silicon, IP and development tools leadership.

The acquisition is expected to close in Xilinx's second quarter of the fiscal year 2020, following regulatory reviews and other customary closing conditions. 

Last modified on 03 May 2019
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