Synplicity Takes Lead Position in FPGA Synthesis Market

Leapfrogs Competition

Company Nearly Doubles Market Share in One Year

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2001--Synplicity, Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP - news), a leading supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, today announced that according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Inc., a provider of market intelligence to the semiconductor industry, Synplicity had 45 percent of the FPGA synthesis market in 2000, making it the FPGA logic synthesis and physical synthesis tool market share leader. Synplicity believes that a key factor in the ability to nearly double its market share during the past year is the success of the Synplify Pro® version of its popular synthesis offering and the Amplify® Physical Optimizer(TM) product, the world's only physical synthesis tool for FPGAs. Today's announcement comes on the heels of endorsements for Synplicity products by Philips Semiconductors and Agilent Technologies, both of which have standardized on the Company's fast and easy to use synthesis products for FPGA design.

"We have worked hard to develop innovative products that provide solutions for emerging design challenges and are thrilled to be recognized as the leader in the FPGA synthesis market," said Bernard Aronson, CEO and president, Synplicity, Inc. "We are committed to improving designer productivity and take pride in delivering products that are fast and easy to use with the high quality of results demanded for today's complex programmable logic devices. We will continue to seek to provide best-in-class solutions for the FPGA design community and to raise the bar on what our customers can achieve in their designs."

The increasing complexity of programmable logic devices is driving the need for advanced EDA tools that can quickly deliver high performance and results. Gary Smith, chief EDA analyst at Dataquest and main author of the Dataquest EDA market report, projects that the FPGA synthesis market will see an annual growth rate of 20 percent over the next five years.

Dataquest's annual market share and forecast report titled, "EDA 2001: It's Good to be an EDA Vendor," was compiled using a variety of data sources including Dataquest research, EDA vendor-submitted responses and detailed end-user surveys. Synplicity's leadership position was based on 2000 license revenues for the Synplify®, Synplify Pro and Amplify Physical Optimizer solutions.

About Synplicity's FPGA Synthesis Solutions

Synplicity's Synplify software helps programmable logic designers rapidly achieve aggressive performance objectives. The Synplify software takes designs written in VHDL or Verilog as input, and compiles, optimizes and maps them into small, high-performance netlists for all leading CPLD and FPGA devices. The Synplify Pro software offers high quality of results and fast runtimes along with an expanded feature set optimized to increase performance and productivity for today's complex programmable devices.

The Amplify Physical Optimizer software is the first physical synthesis tool for FPGAs. The Amplify software improves circuit performance and timing closure and accelerates productivity by performing simultaneous placement and logic optimization during the synthesis process. The Amplify Physical Optimizer product was created specifically for designers who need extremely high performance from high-density Altera and Xilinx devices.

Pricing and Availability

Synplicity's Synplify, Synplify Pro and Amplify Physical Optimizer solutions are available now. Pricing for the Synplify software starts at $9,000 (U.S.), pricing for the Synplify Pro software starts at $19,000 (U.S.) and pricing for the Amplify Physical Optimizer product begins at $25,000 (U.S.).

About Synplicity

Synplicity, Inc. is a leading provider of software products that enable the rapid and effective design and verification of semiconductors used in next-generation networking and communications hardware and other electronic devices. The company leverages its innovative logic synthesis, physical synthesis and verification software solutions to improve performance and shorten development time for complex programmable logic devices, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and system-on-chip (SoC) integrated circuits. Synplicity's fast, easy-to-use products offer high quality of results, support industry-standard design languages (VHDL and Verilog) and run on popular platforms. As of September 30, 2001, Synplicity employed 265 people in its 16 facilities worldwide. Synplicity is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Synplicity's actual financial results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you will be able to identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are only predictions and the actual events or results may differ materially. Synplicity cannot provide any assurance that its future results will meet expectations. Synplicity's operating results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including: Synplicity's success in building its research and development and marketing organizations; the level of demand for FPGAs, ASICs and SoCs; continued acceptance of Synplicity's existing products and the successful introduction and widespread market acceptance of Synplicity's new products. For additional information and considerations regarding the risks faced by Synplicity, see its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2001 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as other periodic reports filed with the SEC from time to time including its annual report on Form 10-K. Although Synplicity believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, Synplicity cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. In addition, neither Synplicity nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of these forward-looking statements. Synplicity disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement.

Note to Editors: Synplicity, Synplify, Synplify Pro and Amplify are registered trademarks of Synplicity, Inc. Physical Optimizer is a trademark of Synplicity, Inc. All other brands or products are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their owners.

     Synplicity, Inc.
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