Two FPGA vendors disclose mass layoffs

As a result of reorganization, Xilinx said it will reduce approximately 250 positions, or about 7 percent of the company's workforce. The reduction is expected to be completed by the end of the next fiscal quarter, according to the San Jose-based FPGA house.

Xilinx expects to record restructuring-related charges of approximately $18 million to 22 million as part of the reorganization expenditure. The charges will impact its Q1's operating expenses, which were forecast to be approximately flat sequentially for the June-ending quarter.

No other details were given. Previously, FPGA rival Altera Corp. gave its midquarter update for the Q2 2008. The company expects that sequential revenue growth will be achieved toward the high end of the company's previous 1 percent to 4 percent guidance.

Meanwhile, QuickLogic has reduced its headcount by 17 percent. The move is part of an effort to focus on its ASSPs, of which it calls customer specific standard products (CSSPs).

Last year, QuickLogic backed away from the FPGA market, saying it will instead focus on CSSPs. It noted that it would no longer position its PolarPro line for mainstream FPGA applications. The company will continue to sell FPGA products to niche-oriented applications in the aerospace, military and related fronts.

Regarding the layoffs, the company will record noncash impairment charges of $1.8 to $2.4 million and one-time cash charges of approximately $500,000 between Q2 and the end of the Q3 2008.

"In addition to improving our agility and the scope of opportunities we can address, this new alignment significantly lowers our breakeven point and positions QuickLogic to scale more profitably in the succeeding quarters to come,'' said E. Thomas Hart, chairman, president and CEO, QuickLogic, in a statement.

''While CSSP design activity has continued to grow, the aggregate softness of consumer demand continues to hamper the ability of our customers to forecast when their new designs will go into production,'' he stressed.

- Mark LaPedus
EE Times