He succeeds Willem Roelandts, who remains chairman of the board at the FPGA house. Roelandts recently announced plans to step down from those roles.

Gavrielov becomes only the third Xilinx CEO in its 24-year history. Most recently, he served as executive vice president and general manager of the verification division at EDA tool supplier Cadence. Before that, Gavrielov spent seven years as CEO of Verisity Ltd.

"Moshe has an excellent track record in building semiconductor and software businesses, applying an outstanding blend of strategic, analytic, business and leadership skills," said Roelandts in a statement.

The new CEO faces several challenges, including a cloudy IC climate in 2008. There is also a concern about the overall growth of the FPGA market this year.

Xilinx, based here, recently released its business update for the December quarter of fiscal 2008. December quarter sales are expected to be up 2-to-6 percent, sequentially, consistent with the company's previous guidance.

The FPGA giant announced net revenues of $444.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2008, flat sequentially with the prior quarter and down 5 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Second quarter net income was $89.7 million, or $0.30 per diluted share. This is a 6 percent jump quarter-over-quarter, but down 4 percent from a year ago.

The interview

One of the big surprises is that Xilinx went outside for a new leader. Some observers thought that one executive -- possibly Omid Tahernia -- would become the next CEO, at one time.

In October, however, startup Tilera Corp. named Tahernia as its new president and CEO. Tahernia was previously the vice president and general manager of the Processing Solutions Group at Xilinx. Tahernia's departure was seen as a blow for Xilinx; he was the face of many of the company's FPGA announcements.

On the other hand, some observers also believe that the appointment of Gavrielov makes sense -- and for good reason. The FPGA is evolving and becoming a "mix of EDA and a semiconductor," said Gavrielov, who has a background in both fields.

Prior to joining Verisity, then Cadence, Gavrielov spent nearly 10 years at LSI Logic Corp., where he served in a variety of executive management positions, including in the ASIC group. He began his career in engineering and engineering management at National Semiconductor Corp. and Digital Equipment.