"With the ProASIC Plus devices, Actel delivers the flexibility of programmable logic with the power of an ASIC-like architecture at higher densities," said Jeff Garrison, director of marketing for FPGA products at Synplicity. "We worked closely with Actel to enhance our software to take advantage of the many improvements and added features of the ProASIC Plus devices such as multiple phase-locked loops, increased memory and user-configurable I/Os. As an OEM partner with Actel, we're pleased to support our mutual customers with optimized software at the introduction of these new FPGAs."

Bryon Moyer, senior director of tools and technical marketing at Actel, added, "Throughout our long-standing relationship with Synplicity, our customers have been pleased with the high quality of results offered by Synplicity's robust synthesis software. Uniquely, the Synplify software will allow our customers to forward-annotate design constraints to achieve peak place-and-route results. We believe designers will benefit from the tight integration between Synplicity's fast, easy-to-use software and our leading-edge ProASIC Plus FPGA devices for the design of highly complex communications and networking systems."

About ProASIC Plus

The ProASIC Plus family, Actel's second-generation of flash-based FPGAs, consists of six devices ranging in density from 150,000 to 1-million system gates. The combination of a fine-grained, ASIC-like architecture and non-volatile flash configuration memory makes Actel's ProASIC Plus offering a strong ASIC alternative. The devices are live at power up, highly secure and require no separate configuration memory, all characteristics shared by ASICs. The ProASIC Plus architecture and design methodology support popular FPGA and ASIC tool flows, reducing time to market and permitting designers to migrate easily between FPGA and ASIC solutions. New features of the ProASIC Plus family include multiple phase-locked loops (PLLs), support for up to 198k bits of two-port embedded SRAM and 712 user-configurable I/Os, and improved in- system programmability.

About Synplify Software

The Synplify products leverage Synplicity's Behavior Extracting Synthesis Technology® (B.E.S.T.(TM)) algorithms and are designed to be fast, easy-to-use and to provide high quality of results. The products run on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT and Unix workstations. The Synplify products offer high-quality synthesis and are optimized to enable increased performance and productivity for designers of complex programmable devices.

Pricing and Availability

Synplicity support for Actel's ProASIC Plus family is available now. Pricing for the Synplify software starts at $9,000 (U.S.). Current customers on maintenance will be upgraded at no additional cost.

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 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 #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 .

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies, embedded-programmable gate arrays (EPGAs) based on SRAM technology, high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design services. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Actel employs approximately 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

The specific features and functionality of new capabilities of existing products and joint development efforts with third-parties as described in this press release remain at the sole discretion of Actel Corporation and Synplicity Inc. and no warranty is made as to whether specific functionalities of such new capabilities, interfaces with third-party software or the success of joint development efforts with third-parties will occur as described in the press release.

NOTE: The Actel name and logo are registered trademarks of Actel Corporation. Synplicity, Synplify and Behavior Extracting Synthesis Technology are registered trademarks of Synplicity Inc. B.E.S.T. is a trademark of Synplicity Inc. All other names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.