Xilinx unveils Everest, new FPGA system to bother Intel’s Altera

Xilinx has taken the wraps off of its new Everest Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip, claiming a huge step forward in performance – more than enough to bother the other main player in the FPGA game, Intel’s Altera. With $1bn invested in Everest, Xilinx is hoping to turn the screw on Intel’s own $16.7bn acquisition. The new Everest design is expected to ship in 2019. Xilinx is hoping to attract more software developers, expanding from its core hardware developer audience who have already grappled with the complexity of programming for FPGAs. New development software libraries are being offered in this vein, with Xilinx hoping to make it as easy as possible to get a TensorFlow developer on board. Everest…