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Synplicity Extends Capabilities of Certify Prototyping Software, Delivering the Ability to Prototype the Largest ASIC Designs
Certify Software is First Prototyping Tool to Feature 64-bit Solaris
Support; Adds New Board Partner to Its Partners in Prototyping Program
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—April 12, 2004—
Advancing its leadership position within the ASIC prototyping
market, Synplicity Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP), a leading supplier of software
for the design and verification of semiconductors, today announced key
enhancements to its Certify(R) prototyping software, the only
verification solution that provides ASIC to multi-FPGA prototype
implementation for designers doing in-system and hardware/software
verification. The latest version of the Certify software includes
support for the 64-bit Solaris operating system, enabling customers to
synthesize larger prototypes in a single pass without having to
artificially break up the design into smaller pieces. With its support
of the latest workstation environments, Synplicity believes the
Certify software continues to be the ASIC prototyping solution of
choice for designers performing multi-FPGA prototyping.
In its efforts to continue offering customers support for a
variety of board vendors, Synplicity also announced today White Eagle
Systems has been added as a new hardware board partner for the Certify
software and is now part of Synplicity's Partners in Prototyping
Program. Synplicity established the first-of-its-kind Partners in
Prototyping Program for designers looking for complete, rapid
prototype development solutions. The Certify software also leverages
the latest version of Synplicity's industry-leading Synplify Pro(R)
synthesis software. Synplicity believes the synchronization with the
compilers and mappers from the Synplify Pro 7.3.4 software offers
designers the best optimization technology for faster ASIC prototypes.
"We believe our Certify product is the most comprehensive ASIC
prototyping solution available today," said Brian Caslis, director of
marketing for the Certify product line at Synplicity. "Although some
competitive solutions claim to tackle prototyping challenges, they do
not address some of the most complex issues associated with
prototyping, including automatic RTL partitioning and automatic I/O
multiplexing. The automation of many of these complex tasks within the
Certify software enables us to eliminate many of the unnecessary
complexities of ASIC prototyping, allowing customers to take advantage
of this form of verification. Customers interested in prototyping
partial ASICs or blocks of IP can use our Synplify Pro tool, which
offers the same core optimization and gated-clock conversion
capabilities."
Synplicity delivered the industry's first ASIC prototyping
software nearly five years ago and since then, the software has
introduced many key innovations, enabling huge productivity gains for
FPGA-based ASIC prototyping. Certify includes gated-clock conversion,
multi-chip timing analysis, I/O multiplexing insertion, and a host of
other detailed capabilities. Additionally, Synplicity introduced Quick
Partitioning Technology, an automated, push-button flow that
partitions an ASIC into multiple FPGAs, including custom boards,
off-the-shelf boards and reconfigurable hardware. Synplicity also
created its unique Partners in Prototyping Program, a formalized
system that qualifies pre-fabricated multi-FPGA hardware platforms and
includes their board files within the Certify tool, thereby
eliminating the need for customers to design and build their own
custom prototyping platforms.
Support for Solaris 64-bit Design Environments
The latest version of the Certify software becomes the first
prototyping solution to take full advantage of the Solaris 64-bit
operating system, utilizing 64-bit address space for access to more
memory. This feature is especially useful for synthesizing the largest
ASIC designs, which can now be prototyped all at once and are limited
only by the memory available on their workstation. With support for
the latest workstation environments, the Certify software is able to
read in the entire RTL code from large ASICs, such as 10 million gates
and up, and partition and synthesize them without requiring any
changes to the design.
White Eagle Systems Added to Partners in Prototyping Program
As the latest member of the Partners in Prototyping Program, White
Eagle Systems has delivered a unique methodology for building
FPGA-based prototypes quickly and easily, further speeding the overall
ASIC design and development cycle. Documentation and technical
information for this latest partner and its Scallopwing board are now
available on the Partners in Prototyping Web page on the Synplicity
Web site. The Certify software also includes Scallopwing board files,
allowing designers to begin prototyping their designs immediately. The
addition of White Eagle Systems brings the total number of board
partners to eight, which also includes AMO, The Dini Group, EVE, Hardi
Electronics, Gidel, Nallatech and ProDesign Electronics Corporation.
White Eagle Systems' Scallopwing board features very large
capacity in a reconfigurable hardware environment. The standard
configuration contains four XC2V8000 Xilinx Virtex-II devices with 32
million system gates of programmable logic.
"The combination of Synplicity's Certify software and White
Eagle's high-capacity Scallopwing board offers our mutual customers a
great value for ASIC prototyping," said Jim Tobias, President, White
Eagle Systems Technology. "The leading-edge features within the
Certify software demonstrate Synplicity's commitment to offering
solutions that remove the guesswork from the prototype development
process. We believe by combining our expertise in emulation technology
with the Certify-based RTL prototyping methodology, our customers will
be able to deliver superior solutions, achieving a vital competitive
edge."
Pricing and Availability
The Certify 6.4 software is available now. Pricing for the Certify
software starts at $45,000 (U.S.) for a one-year time-based license.
Current Certify customers on maintenance will be upgraded at no
additional cost.
About the Certify Software
The Certify software is believed to be the industry's only
register transfer level (RTL) prototyping solution that enables
designers to create functional hardware prototypes of their ASIC
design automatically at the RTL, prior to ASIC synthesis. Verification
at this early stage of design results in a dramatic increase in
productivity and enables faster time to market, especially for
one-million-gate-plus ASIC/SoC designs. Synplicity believes that
prototypes defined by the Certify product will enable extensive
verification, allowing ASIC designers to perform the following tasks
at- or near-system speed: hardware/software co-verification; algorithm
development and verification; verification of intellectual property,
either cores or library elements; system software development and
debugging; verification of system-level protocol compatibility and
early system/product development with FPGAs.
About Synplicity
Synplicity(R) Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP) is a leading supplier of
innovative synthesis, verification and physical implementation
software solutions that enable the rapid and effective design and
verification of semiconductors. Synplicity's high-quality,
high-performance tools significantly reduce costs and time-to-market
for FPGA, Structured/Platform ASIC and cell-based/COT ASIC designers.
The company's underlying Behavior Extracting Synthesis Technology(R)
(BEST(TM)), which is embedded in its logical, physical and
verification tools, and has led to Synplicity's top position in FPGA
synthesis, now provides the same fast runtimes and quality of results
to ASIC and COT customers. The company's fast, easy-to-use products
support industry standard design languages (VHDL and Verilog) and run
on popular platforms. Synplicity employs over 270 people in its 20
facilities worldwide. Synplicity is headquartered in Sunnyvale,
California. For more information visit http://www.synplicity.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements including,
but not limited to, statements regarding the performance and
achievements of Synplicity's enhanced Certify software and Certify's
industry position. In some cases, you will be able to identify
forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will,"
"should," "expects," "believes" or the negative of these terms or
other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions
and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
that may cause the actual achievements of the Certify software to
differ materially from the forward-looking statements, including the
performance and quality of our software products relative to other
comparable software, the acceptance of our software products by
existing and new customers, latent defects, design flaws or other
problems with the enhanced Certify software and the growth and
changing technical requirements in the programmable semiconductor
market. For additional information and considerations regarding the
risks faced by Synplicity, see its annual report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2003 as filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, as well as other periodic reports filed with the SEC from
time to time, including its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Although
Synplicity believes that the expectations reflected in the
forward-looking statements are reasonable, Synplicity cannot guarantee
the future performance or achievements of its software. In addition,
neither Synplicity nor any other person assumes responsibility for the
accuracy or completeness of these forward-looking statements.
Synplicity disclaims any obligation to update information contained in
any forward-looking statement.
Synplicity, Behavior Extracting Synthesis Technology, Certify and
Synplify Pro are registered trademarks of Synplicity Inc. BEST is a
trademark of Synplicity Inc. All other brands or products are the
trademarks or registered trademarks of their owners.
Contact:
Synplicity Inc.
Brian Caslis, 408-215-6000
caslis@synplicity.com
or
Porter Novelli
Steve Gabriel, 408-369-1500
steve.gabriel@porternovelli.com
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