Editing Xilinx (section)

===Early history===
[[Ross Freeman]], [[Bernard Vonderschmitt]], and [[James V Barnett II]]—all former employees of [[Zilog]], an [[integrated circuit]] and solid-state device manufacturer—co-founded Xilinx in 1984 with headquarters in [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], USA.<ref name="four" /><ref name="three">[http://press.xilinx.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=212763&p=irol-newsArticle_print&ID=1255523 Xilinx MediaRoom - Press Releases]{{Dead link|date=August 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}. Press.xilinx.com. Retrieved on 2013-11-20.</ref>

While working for Zilog, Freeman wanted to create chips that acted like a blank tape, allowing users to program the technology themselves.<ref name="three" /> "The concept required lots of [[transistors]] and, at that time, transistors were considered extremely precious—people thought that Ross's idea was pretty far out", said Xilinx Fellow Bill Carter, hired in 1984 to design ICs as Xilinx's eighth employee.<ref name="three" />

It was at the time more profitable to manufacture generic circuits in massive volumes<ref name="four"/> than specialized circuits for specific markets.<ref name="four"/> [[Field-programmable gate array|FPGAs]] promised to make specialized circuits profitable.

Freeman could not convince Zilog to invest in FPGAs to chase a market then estimated at $100 million,<ref name="four"/> so he and Barnett left to team up with Vonderschmitt, a former colleague. Together, they raised $4.5 million in [[Venture capital|venture]] [[funding]] to design the first commercially viable FPGA.<ref name="four"/> They incorporated the company in 1984 and began selling its first product by 1985.<ref name="four"/>

By late 1987, the company had raised more than $18 million in [[venture capital]] (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|18|1987|r=2}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}) and was making nearly $14 million a year.<ref name="four"/><ref name="twelve">[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi The Inflation Calculator] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326173743/https://westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi |date=2018-03-26 }}. Retrieved January 15, 2009.</ref>