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LAS VEGAS, June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, as Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) accepted the prestigious Gold Design Achievement Award for its Graphics Synthesizer®I-32, SCEI highlighted the role that Simplex Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLX) played in the creation of the winning design. According to SCEI, the chip, currently the largest system-on-chip (SoC) ever manufactured, is the result of engineering cooperation between four organizations: SCEI, Sony Corporation, Sony Kihara Research Center and Simplex. The chip's architecture and functional design were developed by SCEI, Sony Kihara Research Center and Sony Corporation S&S Architecture Center. The electrical and physical chip design was completed by Simplex's SoC Design Foundry in 10 weeks, meeting both technical and schedule objectives.

The Design Achievement Awards are presented by the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC) to honor outstanding integrated circuit (IC) and electronic systems development through the use of electronic design automation (EDA) tools. As the recipient of the Gold award, SCEI took top honors for its design at today's awards presentation, held at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in Las Vegas, Nevada. During its acceptance speech, SCEI gave a nod to Simplex for the role it played in the creation of the winning design.

``The Graphics Synthesizer®I-32 was a very ambitious project, both in terms of the chip's massive integration and its advanced functionality,'' said Hidetaka Magoshi, vice president of System LSI Design, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. ``Silicon engineering for this chip was commissioned to Simplex's SoC Design Foundry because of the team's depth of experience with complex system-on-chip design and their impressive track record of first- silicon success. SCEI is pleased to acknowledge the important role the Simplex design team played in the success of the Graphics Synthesizer®I-32.''

SCEI's winning design -- first unveiled in a joint paper presented by Aurangzeb Khan, Simplex's executive vice president and general manager, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in February of this year -- was developed for a real-time, high-resolution computer graphics rendering system based on an enhanced version of the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system architecture. The 150 MHz graphics rendering processor contains 287.5 million transistors (7.5 million logic and 280 million in memory), integrated on a 21.3 x 21.7 square millimeter die, manufactured in a 0.18 micron, six-layer-metal CMOS process.

The chip has 256 megabytes of embedded dynamic random-access memory (eDRAM) which represents an eight-fold increase in embedded DRAM integration versus the current PlayStation®2 graphics rendering processor. This unprecedented level of memory integration was made possible by architectural and electrical design enhancements and advanced process technology, which enables a bandwidth of 48 gigabytes per second, delivering a rendering rate of 75 million polygons per second. The chip is designed to achieve a real-time video data rate of 60 frames per second in progressive mode, at the resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels per frame. This capability exceeds the highest digital high-definition television (HDTV) standard, which is 1920 by 1080 pixels with interlaced scan, or 1280 by 720 pixels with progressive scan.

``The Simplex SoC Design Foundry specializes in creating the electrical and physical design for very complex systems-on-chip,'' said Simplex's Khan. ``We were honored to be selected by Sony Computer Entertainment to partner with them on a challenging project like the Graphics Synthesizer®I-32, and we are doubly honored that SCEI would share some of the limelight with us as they accept this important industry award.''

About Simplex

Simplex Solutions, Inc. provides software and services for the design and verification of integrated circuits to enable its communications, computer and consumer-products customers to achieve first-time production success and rapid delivery of complex systems-on-chip. Simplex's customers use its products and services prior to manufacture to design and verify the integrated circuits to help ensure that the integrated circuits will perform as intended, taking into account the complex effects of deep-submicron semiconductor physics. Simplex can be reached at 408-617-6100 or on the web at www.simplex.com.

NOTE: Simplex Solutions, the Simplex logo, and SoC Design Foundry are trademarks of Simplex Solutions. PlayStation and Graphics Synthesizer are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this press release are the properties of their respective owners.