Synplicity Enhances RTL Prototyping Software Solution

Certify Software Provides Enhanced Automatic Partitioning and Availability of New Hardware Partners for Rapid ASIC Prototype Development

SUNNYVALE, Calif., November 3, 2003 — Synplicity, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNP), a leading supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, today announced it has enhanced its Certify® ASIC RTL prototyping software to further accelerate the ASIC verification process. The new version of the Certify software offers enhanced Quick Partitioning Technology (QPT) with Certify Pin Multiplier (CPM) support that provides designers with an automated flow for prototyping an ASIC design using an off-the-shelf FPGA board or other hardware, even when complex I/O multiplexing is needed. To further optimize its ASIC prototyping capabilities, the new Certify 6.3 software incorporates the latest compilers and mappers from Synplicity’s Synplify Pro® advanced FPGA synthesis software, providing the same language support for VHDL and Verilog, as well as the same quality of results (QoR) as the industry-leading Synplify Pro software. Synplicity also announced new hardware board partners for the Certify software, AMO GmbH and EVE, for designers looking for complete, rapid prototype development solutions.

“Fitting an ASIC design onto an FPGA board is a complex problem,” said Brian Caslis, director of marketing for the Certify product line at Synplicity. “Using a bigger board with more FPGA devices may not address the problem because as the ASIC is partitioned across the FPGAs, I/O interconnects may actually increase. We believe the Certify tool’s new ability to automatically multiplex the I/O when necessary will result in huge time savings, and enable more designers to leverage FPGAs to prototype their ASIC designs.”

The Certify software also now provides support for the Xilinx Spartan III and Altera Stratix GX device families and enables designers to mix both Altera APEX and Stratix devices on a single board. This allows designers to lower their overall prototyping costs by using both high-performance and lower-cost devices in the same hardware prototyping environment. The ability to mix Xilinx devices on a single board was introduced with the previous version of the Certify software.

AMO and EVE Rapid Prototype Development Platforms
Synplicity also announced AMO and EVE have joined its Partners in Prototyping Program. The program brings together leading hardware, software and design service providers to offer a proven methodology for building FPGA-based prototypes quickly and easily, further speeding the overall ASIC design and development cycle. Once these complementary solutions are proven to work with Synplicity's leading Certify software tool, the documentation and technical information are then made available on the Partners in Prototyping Web page on the Synplicity Web site, allowing ASIC designers to easily find the latest solutions for their prototyping needs. The Certify software also includes partner board files, allowing designers to begin prototyping their designs immediately. The addition of AMO and EVE brings the total number of board partners to seven, which also includes The Dini Group, Hardi Electronics, Gidel, Nallatech and ProDesign Electronics Corporation.

The AMO Venus-X prototyping platform, with its widely configurable hardware concept and massive external connectivity, enables accelerated ASIC verification, hardware-assisted software debugging, and implementation of massive parallel algorithms at an early stage of product development with a system complexity of expandable 48MGates. “With our proven track record, AMO is well positioned to assist customers in their RTL prototyping and intellectual property integration efforts,” said Martin Hessing, project manager, AMO. “Synplicity’s advanced capabilities with the Certify software, combined with our expertise with high-performance programmable logic, means that a customer can integrate prototyping into their project schedule with confidence that they will be fully supported.”

EVE provides a hardware-assisted verification platform used to accelerate the verification process of ASIC designs and the software development cycle for embedded software designs. Installed on a designer’s desktop, EVE ZeBu verifies designs up to 12 million ASIC equivalent gates, offering the same debugging capabilities found in high-end emulation systems, but at a higher speed and at a fraction of the cost. “Synplicity’s Certify software is the premier FPGA prototyping software on the market,” said Luc Burgun, president and CEO of EVE. “With our tight product integration, we believe Synplicity’s customers have a compelling reason to adopt our design validation technology to speed up the verification cycle by five to six orders of magnitude compared to existing technologies. Using our platform in combination with the Certify software, designers can still enjoy full visibility into the design at run-time without compiling internal probes.”

Pricing and Availability
The Certify 6.3 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 first register transfer level (RTL) prototyping solution that enables designers to create functional hardware prototypes of their ASIC design 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 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. Synplicity employs over 260 people in its 20 facilities worldwide. Synplicity is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. For more information on Synplicity, visit http://www.synplicity.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and performance of the enhanced Certify software, both individually and used in conjunction with products from Synplicity’s board partners for the Certify software, and Certify’s industry position. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Certify’s actual performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such performance or achievements could differ materially due to a number of factors, including the performance and quality of Synplicity’s software products relative to other products for ASIC verification, the growth and changing technical requirements in the programmable semiconductor market and Synplicity’s progress 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, 2002 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.

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Synplicity, Certify and Synplify Pro are registered trademarks of Synplicity, Inc. All other brands or products are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their owners.

Reader Contact:
Brian Caslis
Synplicity, Inc.
408/215-6000
caslis@synplicity.com

Synplicity PR Contact:
Steve Gabriel
Porter Novelli
408/369-1500
steve.gabriel@porternovelli.com