Chip Express Endorses Synplicity's ASIC Synthesis Software in its Structured ASIC Flow

The Synplify ASIC Software in Combination with Chip Express Libraries Ease Transition to Structured ASIC Design

Santa Clara, Calif. and Sunnyvale, Calif., June 2, 2003 — Chip Express, Inc., a long-standing leader in structured ASIC devices, and Synplicity Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNP), a leading supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, today announced that Chip Express has endorsed Synplicity’s Synplify ASIC® software within its structured ASIC flow. By working together, the two companies have identified a fast, high-performance, area optimizing design flow that offers the push-button ease of Synplicity’s Synplify ASIC software for Chip Express’ cost-effective CX4000 0.25um and CX5000 .18um structured ASICs. Logic designers can download the complete synthesis libraries for Chip Express’ structured ASICs from its Web site at http://www.chipexpress.com.

“FPGA and ASIC design tools and methodologies have taken divergent paths,” said Doug Bailey, vice president of marketing at Chip Express. “Designers are already familiar with Synplicity’s Synplify software for FPGA design. With the customized version of our libraries for the Synplify ASIC software, designers can more easily tie together FPGA and ASIC designs and easily transition to structured arrays without learning to use different tools and platforms.”

“Structured ASICs have rapidly become a major focus of our customers due to advantages in cost, time-to-market and design flow,” said John Gallagher, director of marketing at Synplicity. “Based on this customer interest, we have been working closely with Chip Express to support its structured ASIC devices and are pleased to be endorsed by Chip Express within its design flow. We believe Chip Express’s support of Synplicity’s synthesis software further underlines the leading position of the Synplify ASIC software as the structured ASIC synthesis tool of choice.”
The Synplify ASIC software addresses both performance and area optimization for Chip Express products. For example, datapath functions such as multipliers and adders are inferred from RTL and efficiently mapped into Chip Express’s structured ASIC technology, enabling easy generation of complex control logic and DSP functions without explicit declarations in the HDL. This approach improves HDL portability between FPGA and structured ASIC implementation technologies. Likewise, the ability of the Synplify ASIC software to run fully top-down for all Chip Express products leads to better full chip utilization and timing performance.

About Chip Express
Chip Express is a leading manufacturer of late-stage programmable Structured ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits). The company’s innovative, patented technology enables the consolidation of wafer manufacture tooling, reducing time-to-market and the cost of initial production. Structured ASIC devices find wide use in automotive electronics, computing, communications, consumer products, industrial control, medical equipment, and military/aerospace systems. Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, Chip Express is a privately held corporation, founded in the U.S. in 1989. A subsidiary, Chip Express (Israel) Ltd. performs Research & Development and manages European operations.

About Synplicity
Synplicity Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNP) is a leading provider of software products that enable the rapid and effective design and verification of semiconductors used in networking and communications, computer and peripheral, consumer and military/aerospace electronics systems. Recognizing the company's industry-leading position, since the year 2000 Dataquest has named Synplicity as the #1 provider of PLD synthesis tools, announcing a 54 percent market share in 2001, the last year for which data is available. Synplicity 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), structured ASICs and system-on-chip (SoC) integrated circuits. The company’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 March 31, 2003, Synplicity employed over 260 people in its 20 facilities worldwide. Synplicity is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. For more information on Synplicity, visit http://www.synplicity.com.

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