Xilinx, the US specialised electronics company with a base in west Dublin, said yesterday it increased revenues by 7 per cent to $161 million (£110 million) for the first quarter of its financial year to June 28th. Net profits for the quarter climbed 3 per cent to $33 million, the firm added, and it had a gross margin on sales of 62 per cent.

Xilinx Ireland currently employs 140 people at Citywest in Dublin, and is scheduled to hire a further 160 over the next two years. the company is the world's leading supplier of programmable logic - the highly specialised programmable semiconductor chips used to process information within electronic systems.