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Synplicity and NEC Electronics Ink Physical Synthesis OEM Agreement for ISSP Structured ASICs
NEC Electronics Integrates Amplify-ISSP Software into its OpenCAD
Design Environment for Use in ISSP Structured ASIC Designs
SUNNYVALE, Calif. & KAWASAKI, Japan—(BUSINESS WIRE)—May 24, 2004—
NEC Electronics Corp. (TSE:6723), a world-leading semiconductor
solutions provider, and its global affiliates, and Synplicity, Inc.
(Nasdaq:SYNP), a leading supplier of software for the design and
verification of semiconductors, today announced the companies have
entered into a worldwide OEM agreement whereby NEC Electronics will
bundle and distribute a license for Synplicity's Amplify(R) ISSP
Physical Optimizer(TM) software within NEC Electronics' OpenCAD(R)
design environment for use in the development of its Instant Silicon
Solution Platform(TM) (ISSP(TM)) structured ASICs. The Amplify ISSP
physical synthesis software is the result of nearly two years of joint
development between the two companies to provide their mutual
customers with a unique physical synthesis solution customized for NEC
Electronics' ISSP-1 (150nm) and ISSP-90 (90nm) structured ASICs.
Under the terms of the agreement, NEC Electronics will provide the
Amplify ISSP software to all of its ISSP customers as the preferred
complete physical synthesis design solution. Over the next 12 months,
NEC Electronics will bundle the Amplify ISSP software as part of its
OpenCAD tool suite. NEC Electronics and Synplicity believe this
agreement will enable their mutual customers to achieve better quality
of results and faster timing closure for their ISSP devices.
Additionally, the Amplify ISSP software will streamline the design
flow, and enable rapid layout times with predictable timing closure.
"We recommend ISSP customers use our OpenCAD design environment to
achieve best-in-class quality of results and faster timing closure,"
said Dr. Hitoshi Yoshizawa, Partner Program Executive, 1st System
Operations Unit, NEC Electronics Corporation. "A significant reason
for the success of our OpenCAD tool suite is due to the seamless
interaction between best-of-breed third-party tools and NEC
Electronics' powerful proprietary software tools. The integration of
the Amplify ISSP software has enabled us to deliver to our customers a
complete physical synthesis design solution that is all-inclusive
within their NRE costs, enabling them to meet their most stringent
ISSP performance goals. We are pleased to partner with Synplicity as
we see an increasing number of ISSP design starts."
The design implementation environment for ISSP devices, NEC
Electronics' OpenCAD tool suite provides customers with access to the
design tools needed to easily and efficiently complete their ISSP
design (RTL to placed-gates) for handoff to an NEC Electronics
authorized design center for backend detailed routing. The integration
of the Amplify ISSP software within the OpenCAD design environment
provides customers with a highly productive physical synthesis
solution that delivers optimal results, enabling a "one-pass" design
handoff flow for NEC Electronics' ISSP customers.
"For nearly two years, we have been in joint development with NEC
Electronics to develop custom synthesis and physical synthesis
software to support its cost-effective, high-performance, fast
turn-around ISSP structured ASIC devices," said Bernard Aronson,
president and CEO, Synplicity, Inc. "We believe NEC Electronics'
OpenCAD tool suite provides ISSP designers an ideal design environment
to meet their design requirements and we believe the addition of the
Amplify ISSP software to the OpenCAD tool suite will enable customers
to rapidly achieve highly optimized designs at significantly lower
costs. We are pleased NEC Electronics selected the Amplify ISSP
software as the synthesis tool to bundle within its OpenCAD design
environment and look forward to continuing our commitment to deliver
best-in-class synthesis tools for our mutual customers."
NEC Electronics America and Synplicity are holding a series of
instructional seminars, "Discover ISSP Structured ASICs: Your
Turn-Around Time Advantage from 150-90nm" during May. These seminars
will provide engineers with a detailed, hands-on opportunity to learn
about the advantages of ISSP structured ASICs and Amplify ISSP
software. Upcoming seminars include Seattle, Wash. (5/25), Portland,
Ore. (5/26), and Mountain View, Calif. (5/27). For additional
information and registration, visit www.necelam.com/isspseminar or
www.synplicity.com/isspseminar.
Availability
Beginning in May 2004, ISSP-1 customers will receive a six-month
license of the Amplify ISSP software upon signing an ISSP development
contract with NEC Electronics. Beginning in August 2004, ISSP-90
customers will receive a six-month license of the Amplify ISSP
software as part of the OpenCAD design environment upon signing an
ISSP development contract with NEC Electronics. Additional Amplify
ISSP software licenses are available directly from Synplicity. For
more information about the OpenCAD tool suite, contact NEC Electronics
at http://www.necel.com. For more information about the Amplify ISSP
software, contact Synplicity at http://www.synplicity.com.
Availability is subject to change.
About Synplicity's Amplify ISSP Software
The Amplify ISSP Physical Optimizer software carries forward into
physical synthesis the joint R&D efforts between NEC Electronics and
Synplicity that began in June of 2002. The software performs automatic
memory block placement, concurrent full-chip (top-down) legalized
placement and customized physical synthesis, timing analysis, and
ISSP-specific datapath and arithmetic operator generation. The
software is capable of handling any size of design for ISSP flat,
without having to partition the design for synthesis, leading to
substantially improved area and run time. The tight correlation to NEC
Electronics' place-and-route environment provides a one-pass flow for
users of the Amplify ISSP software.
About NEC Electronics' ISSP Structured ASICs
The ISSP architecture was designed to serve the growing number of
applications that require higher complexity and performance than an
FPGA but cannot bear the high development costs associated with
cell-based ASICs. Each NEC Electronics' ISSP design begins with a
prefabricated master made up of an array of complex multi-gates,
embedded IP cores, built-in test circuits, clock domains and power
lines. The upper metal layers are easily and quickly placed, routed
and fabricated to satisfy the unique requirements of each individual
design. ISSP-based products consume much less power than a comparable
FPGA and also have lower NRE costs than cell-based ASIC devices.
About NEC Electronics
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723) specializes in
semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for
the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system
solutions for the mobile handsets, PC peripherals, automotive and
digital consumer markets, and platform solutions for a wide range of
customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 25 subsidiaries
worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics
(Europe) GmbH. In addition to marketing, selling and supporting NEC
Electronics products to customers in their respective regions, NEC
Electronics America and NEC Electronics Europe also operate local
manufacturing facilities in Roseville, California, and Ballivor,
Ireland, respectively. Additionally, NEC Electronics America for North
America and NEC Electronics Europe for Europe are the sales and
marketing channels of NEC AM-LCD and PDP modules. For additional
information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.
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 NEC Electronics Corporation's OpenCAD design
environment and Synplicity's Amplify ISSP software in conjunction with
NEC Electronics's OpenCAD design environment. 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 or performance of
the Amplify ISSP software or the OpenCAD design environment to differ
materially from the forward-looking statements, including the
performance and quality of Synplicity's software products relative to
other comparable software (both individually and used in conjunction
with third party software), latent defects, design flaws or other
problems with the Amplify ISSP software or the OpenCAD design
environment and the growth and changing technical requirements in the
Structured ASIC 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 and Amplify
are registered trademarks of Synplicity Inc. BEST is a trademark of
Synplicity Inc. OpenCAD is a registered trademark and ISSP and Instant
Silicon Solution Platform are trademarks of NEC Electronics
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other
names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of
their owners.
Contact:
Synplicity Inc.
Joe Gianelli, 408-215-6000 (Readers)
jgianelli@synplicity.com
or
Porter Novelli (for Synplicity)
Steve Gabriel, 408-369-1500 (Press)
steve.Gabriel@porternovelli.com
or
NEC Electronics Corp.
Sophie Yamamoto, +81-44-435-1664 (Japan)
sophie.yamamoto@necel.com
or
NEC Electronics America, Inc.
Denise Viereck Garibaldi, 408-588-6620 (United States)
denise_garibaldi@necelam.com
or
NEC Electronics GmbH
Oliver Luettgen, + 49-211-6503-1469 (Europe)
luettgeno@ee.nec.de
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