Synplicity Builds Momentum in ASIC Synthesis Market
Company Announces Tape Outs, Customers, ASIC Vendor Support and Enhancements for the Synplify ASIC Software
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2001--Synplicity Inc.
(Nasdaq:SYNP - news), a leading supplier of software for the design and
verification of semiconductors, today announced increased customer
adoption, new ASIC vendor support and tape outs for its Synplify
ASIC(TM) software. ASIC vendors that have endorsed the synthesis
product are AMI Semiconductor, Lightspeed Semiconductor and Oki
Semiconductor. Introduced in June 2001, the Synplify ASIC software is
the industry's first timing-driven ASIC synthesis product optimized to
improve productivity for the majority of ASIC designers. Synplicity's
Synplify ASIC software leverages the company's proven synthesis
technology, delivers high quality of results and features order of
magnitude runtime improvements over traditional synthesis products.
Also today, Synplicity introduced a new version of the software
featuring enhancements to improve area utilization and runtime that
will deliver increased performance and designer productivity.
"We are pleased with the momentum the Synplify ASIC software has
generated since its introduction six months ago," said Andy Haines,
vice president of marketing at Synplicity. "In developing the Synplify
ASIC software, we set out to create a product unlike any other ASIC
synthesis tool -- a solution that delivers superb results, runs fast
and eliminates unnecessary complexity to allow designers to focus on
the design rather than the design tool. We believe the enthusiasm for
the product to date demonstrates that our strategy meets the needs of
the ASIC design community. We hope the high-performance and
high-productivity benefits designers obtain from the Synplify ASIC
software will foster continued adoption and success."
Industry Support for the Synplify ASIC Software
At the product's introduction, AMI Semiconductor incorporated the
Synplify ASIC software into its FPGA-to-ASIC conversion design flow as
the synthesis tool of choice. Since that time, AMI Semiconductor has
successfully taped out two ASICs using the Synplify ASIC software,
with more designs in the pipeline.
"We have seen good results using the Synplify ASIC software," said
Vince Hopkin, vice president, Conversion ASIC Business Unit, AMI
Semiconductor. "The two designs we taped out took less time than
traditionally needed to go from design to implementation. We expect
more tape outs in the near future using the Synplify ASIC software."
The ASIC design community has also recognized the productivity
benefits offered by the Synplify ASIC software. More than 30 companies
are currently conducting evaluations of the Synplify ASIC software
using libraries from more than 15 different ASIC vendors and
third-party library providers. Synplicity now has customers for the
Synplify ASIC software in Europe, Japan and the United States.
Stefan Blixt, chief technical officer at Imsys, a developer of
JAVA processor cores who recently purchased the Synplify ASIC software
stated, "One of the most impressive features of the Synplify ASIC
software is the ability to perform multiple iterations in a single
day. We are limited to a single run per day with other tools and we
have to spend a lot of time setting up the synthesis tool to run
properly. With Synplicity's ASIC synthesis solution, we were able to
run a design the same day we installed the software."
ASIC Vendors Pledge Library Support
Additionally, key ASIC vendors, including Lightspeed Semiconductor
and Oki Semiconductor, have committed to provide library support for
the Synplify ASIC software.
Jamshed Qamar, vice president of engineering at Oki Semiconductor,
added, "The Synplify ASIC software's productivity focus is in line
with Oki's commitment to address the real needs of our customers to
complete synthesis efficiently and quickly. We are working closely
with Synplicity to evaluate and integrate the Synplify ASIC software
in our design flow and believe our customers will see good results
using a combination of Oki library and ASIC synthesis solution from
Synplicity for their designs."
Michael Sydow, vice president of marketing and applications
engineering at Lightspeed Semiconductor, echoed similar sentiments.
"Our customers have chosen Lightspeed because we offer the fastest
timing convergence in the ASIC industry. Our qualification of the
Synplify ASIC software demonstrated to us the benefits of extremely
fast runtimes for ASIC synthesis. We have been very impressed with
Syplicity's responsiveness to our requests and we expect Lightspeed's
customer base to find an excellent solution with the Synplify ASIC
software."
Increased Performance and Designer Productivity Enhancements
The Synplify ASIC software has been enhanced with several
productivity and performance improving features. The new Synplify ASIC
software version 2.2 now features an in-place optimization capability
that enables designers to improve the performance of their gate-level
netlist without impacting the downstream place-and-route tools. The
in-place optimization feature enables a designer to adjust cell sizes
based on back-annotated .sdf and setLoad information from the
place-and-route tools. This capability within the Synplify ASIC
software fixes performance and/or design rule violation issues that
otherwise would need to be fixed in more cumbersome ways.
Synplicity also enhanced the core synthesis engine within the
Synplify ASIC software by expanding its module generation
capabilities, improving the quality of results obtained by the
software without requiring extensive scripting, design manipulation or
tool settings.
Additional enhancements in version 2.2 of the Synplify ASIC
software include:
- Improved interoperability -- A seamless operation with other
tools in the flow, the Synplify ASIC software supports the
Synopsys Constraint Format (.scf) for direct input and output
of Synopsys .sdc files.
- Faster runtimes -- Enhancements to the ASIC synthesis
solution's core algorithms increased the runtime of the
software by more than 2X over the previous version. Depending
on the hardware platform and the ASIC library used, the
Synplify ASIC software is now capable of handling more than
one million gates per hour.
- Expanded platform support -- Now includes HP-UX 11.0, Linux
(RedHat 7.1) and Solaris 2.8.
Pricing and Availability
The Synplify ASIC software is available now for Linux (Red Hat
7.1), HP-UX 11.0, Sun Solaris 2.7/2.8 and Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000
operating systems. A perpetual license of the Synplify ASIC software
lists for $115,000 (U.S.). A one-year time-based license of the
Synplify ASIC software lists for $69,000 (U.S.). Through 2001,
existing Synplicity customers can purchase the Synplify ASIC software
for half the list price.
About Synplicity
Synplicity Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP - news) is a leading provider of software
products that enable the rapid and effective design and verification
of semiconductors used in next-generation communications, computer,
consumer and military/aerospace electronics systems. 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. Recognizing the company's industry-leading
position, Dataquest named Synplicity as the No. 1 provider of PLD
synthesis tools in 2000 with 45 percent market share. 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. For more information on Synplicity, visit:
http://www.synplicity.com.
The specific features and functionality of new capabilities of
existing products remain at the sole discretion of Synplicity, Inc.
and no warranty is made as to whether specific functionalities of such
new capabilities will occur as described in this press release.
Note to Editors: Synplicity is a registered trademark of
Synplicity, Inc. Synplify ASIC is a trademark of Synplicity, Inc. All
other names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered
trademarks of their owners. SYB-125
Contact:
Synplicity, Inc.
John Gallagher, 408/215-6000 (Reader)
johng@synplicity.com
or
Tsantes/Porter Novelli
Steve Gabriel, 408/369-1500 ext. 27 (Press)
steve@tsantes.com
